CLING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Cling

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/klɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Cling v. t. (past & past part. clung, obs. clong; pres. part. clinging)

To cause to adhere to, especially by twining round or embracing. (Obs.) "I clung legs as close to his side as I could."

To make to dry up or wither. (Obs.) "If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee."

Cling v. i. (past & past part. clung, obs. clong; pres. part. clinging) To adhere closely; to stick; to hold fast, especially by twining round or embracing; as, the tendril of a vine clings to its support; usually followed by to or together. "And what hath life for thee That thou shouldst cling to it thus?"

noun

Cling n. Adherence; attachment; devotion. (R.) "A more tenacious cling to worldly respects."

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Etymology of 'Cling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cling" Quotes from Famous Books

... A chain, not very heavy but of enormous strength, and of sufficient length to reach the bottom and give plenty of play, was attached to an anchor of a peculiar kind. It was very large and heavy, made of iron, and shaped something like a cuttlefish, with many arms which would cling to the bottom if any force were exerted to move the anchor. The other end of the chain was attached to the lower part of the buoy, and with powerful cranes the anchor was hoisted on deck, and when everything had been made ready the buoy, which had had the proper date cut upon it, ...

— The Great Stone of Sardis • Frank R. Stockton

... I say, did. If you had seen, as I have, the almost superhuman struggles of his will to master the fierce temper his ancestors gave him, you would marvel less at what he has so early become. I have seen him, white with passion, cast himself on his face on the shore, and cling with his hands to the earth as if in a paroxysm of bodily suffering; then after a few moments rise and do a service to the man who had wronged him. Were it any wonder if the light should have soon gone up in a soul like that? When I was a younger man I used to go out ...

— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald

... "But such a gray, moss-grown tower as this, however valuable as an object of scenery, will certainly be quite as interesting inside as out. It cannot be less than six hundred years old; the foundations and lower story are much older than that, I should judge; and traditions probably cling to the walls within quite as plentifully as the gray and yellow lichens cluster on ...

— The Marble Faun, Volume II. - The Romance of Monte Beni • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... prepared for himself a few headings of what he intended to say, and on one or two points had arranged his words. His hope was that even though he should forget the words, he might still be able to cling to the thread of his discourse. When he found himself again upon his legs amidst those crowded seats, for a few moments there came upon him that old sensation of awe. Again things grew dim before his eyes, and again he hardly knew at which end of that long chamber the Speaker was sitting. ...

— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope

... was as certainly a kinsman as an own brother. This cross relationship between persons of the same gens in the different tribes is still preserved and recognized among them in all its original force. It explains the tenacity with which the fragments of the old confederacy still cling together. If either of the five tribes had seceded from the confederacy it would have severed the bond of kin, although this would have been felt but slightly. But had they fallen into collision it would have turned the gens of the Wolf against their gentile kindred, Bear against ...

— Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines • Lewis H. Morgan

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