clinch
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See also: Clinch
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
16th-century alteration of clench.
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
clinch (third-person singular simple present clinches, present participle clinching, simple past and past participle clinched)
- 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.’”
- 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.
- To fasten securely or permanently.
- To bend and hammer the point of (a nail) so it cannot be removed. [17th century]
- To embrace passionately.
- To hold firmly; to clench.
- 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[edit]
- (fasten securely): attach, join, put together; see also Thesaurus:join
- (hold firmly): clasp, grasp, grip; See also Thesaurus:grasp
Translations[edit]
to clasp, to interlock
to make certain, finalize
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to fasten securely or permanently
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Noun[edit]
clinch (plural clinches)

(Sense 6) One wrestler is trying to get the back.
- Any of several fastenings.
- 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
- (obsolete) A pun.
- (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.
- 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.
- 2015, Judith Arnold, Moondance
- In combat sports, the act of one or both fighters holding onto the other to prevent being hit or engage in standup grappling.
Translations[edit]
any of several fastenings
combat sports
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See also[edit]
clinch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- clench
- clincher
- clinch nut