clinch
See also: Clinch
English
Etymology
16th-century alteration of clench.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /klɪnt͡ʃ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪntʃ
Verb
clinch (third-person singular simple present clinches, present participle clinching, simple past and past participle clinched)
- To clasp; to interlock. [from 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.’”
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- To make certain; to finalize. [from 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:
- 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.
- Synonyms: attach, join, put together; see also Thesaurus:join
- To bend and hammer the point of (a nail) so it cannot be removed. [17th century]
- To embrace passionately.
- To hold firmly; to clench.
- Synonyms: clasp, grasp, grip; see also Thesaurus:grasp
- 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
Translations
to clasp, to interlock
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to make certain, finalize
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to fasten securely or permanently
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to bend and hammer the point of so it cannot be removed
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to embrace passionately
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to hold firmly
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to set closely together
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Noun
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.
- Synonyms: grip, 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.
- 2021 June 25, Marina Hyde, “Matt Hancock, the one-time sex cop now busted for a dodgy clinch”, in The Guardian:
- So, then, to the health secretary’s “steamy clinch” with Gina Coladangelo, the lobbyist and long-term friend he took on as an aide last year […]
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- (wrestling, combat sports) The act of one or both fighters holding onto the other to prevent being hit or engage in standup grappling.
- (slang, archaic) A prison sentence.
- 1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King
- COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?
- 1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King
Derived terms
- clinch-built
Descendants
- → Czech: klinč
- → German: Clinch
- → French: clinch
- → Portuguese: clinche
- → Russian: клинч (klinč)
- → Serbo-Croatian: klȉnč
- → Polish: klincz
- → Swedish: klinch
Translations
any of several fastenings
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combat sports
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See also
- clench
- clincher
- clinch nut
Further reading
clinch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
French
Etymology
Borrowed from English clinch.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /klintʃ/, /klinʃ/
Noun
clinch m (plural clinchs)
- clinch