I think the second part of ivy's answer is pretty much what you want. I'll try to describe a little bit about what's (subconsciously) going on in a Mandarin speaker's mind when using 把. The original meaning of 把 is "to grasp; to hold". When you grasp/hold something, very often you are handling it with activeness. Therefore, when you apply 把 to the "S 把 O V" construction, it's very much to say that "the subject handles(把) the object by doing so". The stress of the meaning is on the object and on how the object is handled, with a sense of activeness of the doer. Another thing to keep in mind is that most of the time the verb in the 把 construction is used with a suffix/adverb tagging alone. If you drop the suffix/adverb, you'll sound like a poet or a writer of old literature. Ex: 小狗把肉吃掉了。→ The dog (小狗) handled (把) the meant (肉) (by) eating (it) up(吃掉了). Of course a more proper English translation would be "The dog ate up the meat". However, the focus of the meaning here is not on the subject, or the dog, but on the meat and how it was handled (吃掉了), and moreover, it was the dog that wanted to do it (with activeness). If you drop the suffix/adverb of the verb, which is 掉了 in this case, it's more seen in old literature. Because the focus of the meaning is on the object and how it's handled, the 把 construction is very often used in imperatives. When I say 把書撿起來, that means I want you to want to pick up the book (handle the book by picking it up with activeness). You'll hear tons of 把 in a cooking show to describe how the food should be prepared. Just my two cents.

把 [bà] hold 汉英词典 把 [bǎ] 动 (执；握住) grasp；hold 把住栏杆 hold on to a railing 动 (看守；把守) guard；watch；keep 把大门 guard a gate 动 (掌握；控制；把持；把揽) control；dominate；monopolize 把好舵 be firm at the helm 动 (帮助小孩大小便) assist child in natural functions 把屎把尿 hold a baby while he relieves himself 动 [方] (用做； 当做；含“拿”的意思) use sth. as；regard as 把这当一回事 take [regard] the matter seriously 名 (把手) handle 自行车把 the handlebar of a bicycle 名 (扎在一起的捆子) bundle；bunch 草把 a bundle of straw 量 (用于有柄的器具) used before objects with handles or things to take hold of 一把椅子 a chair 量 (指可以一手抓起的数量) a handful of 一把筷子 a bundle of chopsticks 量 (用于抽象事物) used before abstract things 上了一把年纪 be getting on in years; 加把劲 put on a spurt 量 (用于手的动作) used in things done with hands 帮他一把 give [lend] him a hand 助 (用于数字或度量后，表示“大约；左右”) about；or so 百把人 about a hundred persons;some hundred people; 个把月 a month or so;about a month 介 (宾语是后面动词的承受者，意思和“将”一样) 把任务完成 fulfill the task; 把国民经济搞上去 push the national economy forward 介 (后面的动词是“忙、累、急、气”等加上表示结果的补语，有“致使”之意) 这一趟可真把他累坏了。 That trip really tired him out. 介 (宾语是后面动词的执行者，表示不如意之事) 偏偏把他拉在老后面 just left him far behind PS: 把 不能说 我把你爱， sounds so strange

把妹 persue a girl

my apologies for giving the wrong example.

for example: 我把它扔了 means 我扔了它 把它抓住 means 抓住它 '把' is followed by a object here 一些名词有 拖把 扫把 等 作动词用得很少，意思是控制（某东西），（不好意思，这里我也想不出一个简单的例子来）