gripping

adj

1. Which catches someone's attention; exciting

   “a gripping action film”

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of grip

noun

1. The act of forming a grip.

   “His resentful comments on this conviction were greeted only by great tears falling in silence, and almost convulsive grippings of his hand.”

2. (alt-of, obsolete)Obsolete form of griping (“pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines”).

   “The same Night it began to operate by Grippings and Sweating, and he being bred a Surgeon, took some Medicines to correct the Grippings, which in some Measure the Medicine did, but he lost his Appetite […]”