to grab a sandwich
3
1.4
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
tomar un sándwich
- I don't have much time, so I'll just grab a sandwich on my way to the meeting.
- go grab a sandwich
- grab a quick sandwich
Examples
-
Sure you don't want to grab a sandwich while you're at it?
-
Grab a sandwich and sit down.
-
Say, you want to grab a sandwich or something?
-
Hey, you want to grab a sandwich?
-
We may grab a sandwich in a few minutes.
-
"Grab a sandwich on your way out."
Fiction book (1991) -
If you wanna grab a sandwich, I'll just be a minute.
-
Let's go grab a sandwich or something.
Fiction book (1997) -
Harry grabbed a sandwich in the coffee shop and then went to the casino.
Fiction book (1991) -
If you need me, I'm over at the Dew Drop grabbing a sandwich.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
30
2.9
Eat a quick meal when you are busy or in a hurry
14
2.6
Eat lunch quickly without planning
How Quick
- Informal
3
1.4
- Informal
30
2.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines the literal verb 'grab' (to seize quickly) with the noun 'sandwich' and the indefinite article, so a learner who knows the constituents can readily infer it means to quickly get (and likely eat) a sandwich. This is a literal, compositional collocation found across languages and follows ordinary English verb + object patterns, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Grab a sandwich comes from the simple image of using your hand to quickly take an already made sandwich and eat it while you move. Because grab means to take fast and a sandwich is easy to hold, the phrase now means 'to quickly get and eat a simple meal'.