CLUTCH • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Clutch

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/klətʃ/ Listen

noun

Clutch n.

1.

A gripe or clinching with, or as with, the fingers or claws; seizure; grasp. "The clutch of poverty." "An expiring clutch at popularity." "But Age, with his stealing steps, Hath clawed me in his clutch."

2.

pl. The hands, claws, or talons, in the act of grasping firmly; often figuratively, for power, rapacity, or cruelty; as, to fall into the clutches of an adversary. "I must have... little care of myself, if I ever more come near the clutches of such a giant."

3.

(Mach.) A device which is used for coupling shafting, etc., so as to transmit motion, and which may be disengaged at pleasure.

4.

Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.

5.

(Zool.) The nest complement of eggs of a bird.

Bayonet clutch (Mach.), a clutch in which connection is made by means of bayonets attached to arms sliding on a feathered shaft. The bayonets slide through holes in a crosshead fastened on the shaft.

verb

Clutch v. t. (past & past part. clutched; pres. part. clutching)

1.

To seize, clasp, or grip with the hand, hands, or claws; often figuratively; as, to clutch power. "A man may set the poles together in his head, and clutch the whole globe at one intellectual grasp." "Is this a dagger which I see before me...? Come, let me clutch thee."

2.

To close tightly; to clinch. "Not that I have the power to clutch my hand."

Clutch v. i.

1.

To reach (at something) as if to grasp; to catch or snatch; often followed by at.

2.

To become too tense or frightened to perform properly; used sometimes with up; as, he clutched up on the exam.

See images of 'Clutch'

Etymology of 'Clutch'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Clutch" Quotes from Famous Books

... his can of whale-oil solution with the clutch of a drowning man. None knew better than he that these interviews, especially when Caroline was present to lend the weight of her dominating personality, always ended in ...

— A Damsel in Distress • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

... clutch and set out on her drive. She rarely had a settled route for these outings of hers, preferring to zigzag about New York, livening up the great city at random. She always drove herself and, having, like a good suffragist, a contempt for male prohibitions, ...

— The Coming of Bill • P. G. Wodehouse

... views of life into an entirely different angle, kaleidoscopically. And always that supernatural likeness to the other man. Elsa began to experience a sensation like that which attends the imagination of one in the clutch of a nightmare: she hung in mid-air: she could neither retreat nor go forward. Just before she retired she leaned over the rail, watching the reflection of the stars twist and shiver on the smooth water. Suddenly she listened. She might have imagined it, for at ...

— Parrot & Co. • Harold MacGrath

... said, "through and through you are evil, I think, and I can't help thinking you are a little crazy. But I wish you would teach me to be as you are, for tonight the hands of my dead father strain from his grave and clutch about my ankles. He has the right because it is his flesh I occupy. And I must occupy the body of a Townsend always. It is not quite the residence I would have chosen— Eh, well, for all that, I am I! And at bottom I ...

— The Cords of Vanity • James Branch Cabell et al

... work unheeding, amid piles of worthless timber flung here and there. So in the 'Adoration of the Magi' the mother wonders with a peasant's wonder at the jewels and gold. Again, the 'Massacre of the Innocents' is one wild, horror-driven rush of pure motherhood, reckless of all in its clutch at its babe. So in the splendour of his 'Circumcision' it is from the naked child that the light streams on the High Priest's brow, on the mighty robe of purple and gold held up by stately forms like a vast banner behind him. The peasant mother to whose poorest ...

— Stray Studies from England and Italy • John Richard Green

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