laying hold of

He was instrumental in the state laying hold of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Hearst Castle.

These social ills could be easily remedied—indeed, one could probably foot the bill for most of them by laying hold of a few days’ worth of Jeff Bezos’ “earnings.”

Laying hold of the staff with his left hand, Sam swung it up, and down it came with a whistling crack on Gollum’s outstretched arm, just below the elbow.

I have called my zeal for laying hold of second-hand books "collecting", but that's too grand a word for what I did.

It is this grovelling art, this so-called ornamentation, which tends to debase rather than exalt, to degrade rather than make noble, to foster a lie rather than utter truth, which brings about the abasement of our calling, and causes our art to fail in many instances in laying hold of, and clinging to, the affections of the noble and the great.