The German verb greifen means "to grab" or "to reach." It is a regular verb, and the object that follows will generally take the accusative, though the phrase nach etwas greifen will require the dative. 

Nur noch wenige Menschen greifen zum Rechen, um Laub zu entfernen.

Only a few people still reach for the rake to remove leaves.

Captions 56-57, Deutsch mit Eylin Herbst in Hamburg

 Play Caption

Die ganze Welt greift nach dem goldenen Pokal

The whole world is reaching for the golden cup

Caption 19, Sportfreunde Stiller: '54, '74, '90, 2006

 Play Caption

... welche es den Elefanten ermöglicht, Nahrung aus bis zu sieben Metern Höhe zu greifen.

...which enables the elephants to grab food from a height of up to seven meters.

Captions 26-27, Evolution An Land: Part 2

 Play Caption

Also, greifen is the root of a number of verbs. Let's have a look at zugreifen, angreifen, eingreifen, ergreifen, and begreifen. 

Darf man da mal probieren? -Ja, bitte. Greifen Sie zu.

Can I try it? -Yes, please. Help yourself.

Caption 83, Großstadtrevier: St. Pauli rettet HSV

 Play Caption

Im Gegensatz zu manchen Haien greifen Orcas Menschen normalerweise nicht an.

Unlike some sharks, orcas do not usually attack humans.

Captions 30-31, Die Top Ten: Die 12 freundlichsten Meerestiere der Welt

 Play Caption

Aber nach einer Weile haben wir mitgekriegt, dass die Volkspolizei und die Kampfgruppen... die haben nicht eingegriffen. Die haben uns laufen lassen.

But after a while, we realized that the People's Police and the Combat Groups... they weren't intervening. They were letting us walk.

Captions 6-8, 30 Jahre Mauerfall Deutschland 30 Jahre nach dem Fall der Berliner Mauer - Part 2

 Play Caption

Manchmal muss man eine Gelegenheit ergreifen.

Sometimes you have to seize an opportunity.

Caption 25, Nicos Weg A2: Auf Wohnungssuche

 Play Caption

Das ist schwer zu begreifen.

That is difficult to comprehend.

Caption 6, Großstadtrevier: Von Monstern und Mördern

 Play Caption

Further Learning
Make flashcards to memorize the meaning of each of these verbs. You can find more examples of them used in context on Yabla German.

You may already know the noun der Schlag and the verb schlagen:

Eine Ohrfeige ist ein Schlag auf die Wange.

A slap is a blow to the cheek.

Caption 34, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte: Baden-Württemberg

 Play Caption

Sie schlagen mit ihren Flossen auf die Oberfläche, um die Möwen anzulocken.

They strike their fins on the surface to attract gulls.

Captions 75-76, Die Top Ten: Die 12 freundlichsten Meerestiere der Welt

 Play Caption

Both Schlag and schlagen have to do with "hitting" or "striking" something. But did you know that they are the root words for over a thousand German nouns and verbs? Let's take a look first at some common nouns with Schlag as their root word:

Der Anschlag, ja.  -Da war dann alles völlig anders. -Am 11. September.

The attack, yes. -Then everything was completely different there. -On September 11th.

Captions 53-54, Dieter Kränzlein: Bildhauer

 Play Caption

Wenn dir der Vorschlag zu riskant ist, dann mieten wir die Fahrräder einfach nur bei dir.

If the proposal is too risky for you, then we'll just rent the bikes from you.

Captions 25-26, Nicos Weg: Praktisch!

 Play Caption

Ich spiele viel Klavier auch sonst, aber ich spiel' auch Schlagzeug.

I play... I play a lot of piano also otherwise, but I also play drums.

Caption 58, Rockfabrik-Open-Air: Love-Street-Interview

 Play Caption

It's pretty clear how the root word Schlag is related to the noun der Anschlag ("the attack"). It's less clear, however, how the root word is related to der Vorschlag ("the proposal"). If you reduce das Schlagzeug to its root words, you have der Schlag and das Zeug, which could render "drums" into the literal translation "hit thing!" There is a certain logic here, however, as a drum is something that is struck.

Let's follow up with some verbs:

Und der Treves wurde vom Amt beschlagnahmt. -Ja, das war eine sehr, sehr schlechte Haltung.

And Treves was seized by the pound. -Yes, that was a very, very bad situation.

Caption 12, Ein Herz für Tiere: Tierschutzhof in Huggenhardt

 Play Caption

Die anderen Steine können durchschlagen.

The other stones can penetrate.

Caption 47, Es war einmal... der Weltraum: Planet Omega

 Play Caption

Der einst in Berlin ansässige Kunsthandel des jüdischen Paares wurde von den Nationalsozialisten zerschlagen.

Once based in Berlin, the art business of the Jewish couple was destroyed by the National Socialists.

Captions 6-7, Restituierung von Raubkunst: aus der Nazi-Zeit

 Play Caption

With verbs too, the relation to schlagen is sometimes clearer: durchschlagen ("to penetrate") may also be translated more literally as "to break through." The verb zerschlagen also has an element of hitting or striking in its meaning "to destroy." It's not as clear, however, how beschlagnahmen ("to seize") is connected with its root word.

Very often you have to go back centuries to Middle or Old German to find out how the words were originally related before their meaning changed over time. Sometimes even linguists aren't certain how the words came to have such different meanings from their root words!

Further Learning
Read through this list of words that use der Schlag and schlagen as root words, and look some of them up on Yabla German to see them used in a real-world context.