clinch

See also: Clinch

English

Etymology

16th-century alteration of clench.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klɪntʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪntʃ

Verb

clinch (third-person singular simple present clinches, present participle clinching, simple past and past participle clinched)

1. To clasp; to interlock. [1560s]
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 9, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:

     “Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the first chapter of Jonah—‘And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.’”

2. To make certain; to finalize. [1716]

   I already planned to buy the car, but the color was what really clinched it for me.

   • 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Vincent Kompany was sent off after conceding a penalty that was converted by Stephen Hunt to give Wolves hope. But Adam Johnson's curling shot in stoppage time clinched the points.

3. To fasten securely or permanently.
4. To bend and hammer the point of (a nail) so it cannot be removed. [17th century]
5. To embrace passionately.
6. To hold firmly; to clench.
7. To set closely together; to close tightly.

   to clinch the teeth or the fist

   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Duty of Servants at Inns

     try if the heads of the nails be fast, and whether they be well clinched

Synonyms

• (fasten securely): attach, join, put together; see also Thesaurus:join
• (hold firmly): clasp, grasp, grip; See also Thesaurus:grasp

Translations

to clasp, to interlock

• Finnish: takertua, lukittua
• French: agrafer (fr)

• Russian: сда́вливать (ru) n (sdávlivatʹ), сжима́ть (ru) n (sžimátʹ), обнима́ть (ru) n (obnimátʹ)

to make certain, finalize

• Finnish: olla viimeinen niitti

to fasten securely or permanently

• Finnish: kiinnittää (fi)

to bend and hammer the point of so it cannot be removed

• Finnish: kotkata (fi)

to embrace passionately

• Finnish: halata (fi)

to hold firmly

• Finnish: puristaa (fi)

to set closely together

• Finnish: puristaa yhteen

Noun

clinch (plural clinches)

(Sense 6) One wrestler is trying to get the back.

1. Any of several fastenings.
2. The act or process of holding fast; that which serves to hold fast; a grip or grasp.

   to get a good clinch of an antagonist, or of a weapon

   to secure anything by a clinch

3. (obsolete) A pun.
4. (nautical) A hitch or bend by which a rope is made fast to the ring of an anchor, or the breeching of a ship's gun to the ringbolts.
5. A passionate embrace.
   • 2015, Judith Arnold, Moondance

     More likely, he was letting her know that his visit this morning was not going to end in a clinch—or something steamier. It was going to be about sitting at a table, drinking coffee and talking.

6. In combat sports, the act of one or both fighters holding onto the other to prevent being hit or engage in standup grappling.

Translations

any of several fastenings

• Bulgarian: скоба (bg) f (skoba)
• French: attache (fr) f, fixation (fr) f

• Russian: зажи́м (ru) m (zažím), ско́ба (ru) f (skóba), заклёпка (ru) f (zakljópka), кле́мма (ru) f (klémma)

combat sports

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: клинч m (klinč)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: sidonta (fi)
• French: clinch (fr) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἅμμα n (hámma)

• Irish: greim m, géagáil f
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: klamra (pl) f
• Portuguese: clinche (pt) m, clinch m
• Russian: клинч (ru) m (klinč)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: จับคอ

See also

• clinch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• clench
• clincher
• clinch nut