Real Dictionary

grapple
verb: If you grapple with a problem or difficulty, you try hard to solve it.
verb: If you grapple with someone, you take hold of them and struggle with them, as part of a fight. You can also say that two people grapple.

grapple in American English
grapnel
to grip and hold; seize
to use a grapnel
intransitive verb: to hold or make fast to something, as with a grapple
noun: a hook or an iron instrument by which one thing, as a ship, fastens onto another; grapnel
transitive verb: to seize, hold, or fasten with or as with a grapple

grapple in British English
noun: any form of hook or metal instrument by which something is secured, such as a grapnel
verb: to come to grips with (one or more persons), esp to struggle in hand-to-hand combat