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clutch¹

(klŭch)

v. clutched, clutch·ing, clutch·es

v.tr.

1. To grasp and hold tightly: a child clutching a blanket.

2. To seize; snatch: clutched the banana from my hand.

v.intr.

1. To attempt to grasp or seize: clutch at a life raft.

2. To engage or disengage a motor vehicle's clutch.

1. A hand, claw, talon, or paw in the act of grasping.

2. A tight grasp.

3. often clutches Control or power: caught in the clutches of sin.

4. A device for gripping and holding.

a. Any of various devices for engaging and disengaging two working parts of a shaft or of a shaft and a driving mechanism.

b. The apparatus, such as a lever or pedal, that activates one of these devices.

6. A tense, critical situation: came through in the clutch.

7. A small, strapless purse that is carried in the hand.

adj.
Informal

1. Being or occurring in a tense or critical situation: won the championship by sinking a clutch putt.

2. Tending to be successful in tense or critical situations: The coach relied on her clutch pitcher.

Idiom:

clutchat straws

To search in desperation for a solution to a difficulty.

[Middle English clucchen, variant of clicchen, from Old English clyccan; probably akin to Swedish klyka, crotch (of a tree), place where something branches.]

clutch²

(klŭch)

1. The complete set of eggs produced or incubated at one time.

2. A brood of chickens.

3. A group; a bunch.

tr.v. clutched, clutch·ing, clutch·es

To hatch (chicks).

[Variant of dialectal cletch; akin to Middle English clekken, to hatch, from Old Norse klekja.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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