▪ I. clench, n.
(klɛnʃ)
See also clinch.
[f. clench v.]
I. That which clenches or is clenched.
1. That part of a nail or bolt which is turned back in clenching. Also clinch.
| 1598 Stow Surv. 101 The roofe of this hall is..wrought of the like boorde, and nayled with rugh and clench. 1617 Markham Caval. vi. 62 Holding onely by the weakest part of the naile, which is the very point of the clench. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Retraits, Knock gently on the top of the Clenches of the lame Foot. 1868 Regul. & Ord. Army ¶571 Shoes are to be fastened, and projecting clenches reduced. |
2. Naut. The clinch of a cable.
| 1804 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. III. 111 The sheet-cable tore out with..violence..till the clench brought up the ship. |
II. The action of clenching.
3. In various senses of the vb.; e.g. a grasp, grip, clutch; tight closure of the teeth, fist, etc.; secure fastening of a nail, etc.; fig. conclusive confirmation of an argument, etc.
| 1779 Projects in Ann. Reg. 103/2 The laths..ought to be laid..close to each other..to allow of a proper clench for the rough plaster. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. xiv. (1858) 465 [They] keep their hands fixed in it with a clench never relaxed. 1865 Mrs. Whitney Gayworthys I. 220 He set [his teeth] tight..He barely relaxed their clench. |
† 4. A play on words, pun, quibble. Obs. or arch. Also clinch.
| 1638 Nabbes Covent Gard. iv. iii, A country-fellow full of knavish clenches. 1668 Dryden Dram. Poesie 47 To begin, then, with Shakespeare..He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating into clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. 1728 Pope Dunc. i. 61 One poor word a hundred clenches makes. 1824 D'Israeli Cur. Lit., Royal Promotions (1859) II. 10 Henry VII made a viceroy of Ireland if not for the sake of, at least with, a clench. |
5. = clinch n. 5.
| 1880 Mrs. Parr Adam & E. xxviii. 395, I ain't goin' to be ‘jammed in a clench, like Jackson’. |
6. Comb. In most cases the combinations are now written clinch-, which see.
▪ II. clench, v.1
(klɛnʃ)
Forms: 3–5 clenche, (pa. tense and pple. 4 clente, 4–6 cleynt), 7– clench. See also clinch, clink v.2
[ME. clench-en (also in York Myst. cleyngk):—OE. clęnc(e)an, in beclęncan = OHG. chlankhan, chlęnkan, klenkan, MHG. klenken, to fasten closely together, tie, knot, entwine:—OTeut. type *klankjan, a causal deriv. of *klink-, klank-, klunk-, co-existing with kling-, klang-, klung- (see cling), app. in the sense ‘to cling, stick fast, adhere’; so that klankjan was ‘to make to stick firmly together, to rivet’. In the same sense Du., EFris., and LG. have klinken, Da. klinke, Sw. klinka, which are closely related (though not identical) formations. Northern Eng. and Sc. have also clink from 15th c.; and from the 16th c. onward, clench was frequently made into clinch. In current use clench and clinch are used indifferently in some senses, in some clench alone is used, and in others clinch is app. preferred: see clinch, and cf. the senses below.]
1. trans. To fix securely, make fast, as with nails, bolts, or the like; to secure (a nail or bolt) by beating back the point or end with a hammer after driving it through anything; to fasten (anything) by so clenching a nail or bolt; to rivet. Also absol. (In reference to a nail or the like, clinch is apparently more usual.)
| a 1250 Owl & Night. 1206 Ich wot ȝef smiþes schal uvele clenche. c 1305 Leg. Rood (1871) 138 Þe Cros..Whon crist for vs þer-on was cleynt. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 259 Your perle..is in cofer, so comly clente. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1133 Yclenched. c 1440 York Myst. viii. 106 It sall be cleyngked euer-ilka dele, With nayles þat are both noble and newe. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 80 Clenchyn, retundo, repando. 1607 Markham in Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 323 And is clenched as other nails be. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 48 The Rings that were clenched on the ends of her Bolts. 1700 Dryden Pal. & Arc. ii. 557 Tough iron plates were clenched to make it strong. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. xiii. 251 Their ends being turned back outside the plates and beaten down or clenched. |
| fig. 1621 Sanderson 12 Serm. (1632) 415 Clench't and riveted to their cures. |
b. intr. (for refl.)
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 107 The fastenings..clench or turn upon the timbers. 1881 Mechanic §326 They will not clench. |
2. To set firmly together, close tightly (the fingers, fist, teeth). (Formerly also clinch.)
| [1632 Sherwood, To clench, comme to clinch. To clinch the fist, serrer le poing.] 1747 Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 54 Clench the fist. 1799 Sheridan Pizarro ii. iv, I clench my hand, and fancy still it grasps a sword. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 392 The lower jaw had become clenched, and the teeth..strongly closed. 1855 Kingsley Heroes iii. (1868) 36 Her eyebrows were knit and her lips clenched with everlasting care and pain. 1859 Tennyson Elaine 608 She..clench'd her fingers till they bit the palm. |
b. fig. To brace up (one's nerves).
| 1842 Tennyson Love & Duty 75 Like those, who clench their nerves to rush Upon their dissolution. 1867 E. Luscombe in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cv. 19 The three youths..had clenched their nerves for the climax of agony. |
c. intr. for refl.
| 1843 E. Jones Poems Sens. & Event 151 Through Some dolphin's body nervously they [a shark's teeth] clench. |
3. trans. To grasp firmly, grip, clutch; to hold firmly in one's grasp.
| a 1300 K. Horn 1476 He sette him on þe benche His harpe for to clenche. 1697 Dryden Virgil (1806) II. 212 Heroes, whose dismember'd hands yet..clench the pointed spear. a 1763 Shenstone Poems Wks. 1764 I. 290 Their torpescent soul Clenches their coin. 1817 Coleridge Lay Serm. 387 Men who clench with one hand what they have grasped with the other. |
| fig. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby vii. vii. (L.), His heart clenched the idea as a diver grasps a gem. |
† 4. intr. To fasten on; to cling. Obs.
| a 1500 King & Barker 100 in Hazl. E.P.P. (1864) 9 The barker cleynt on hem fast; He was sor aferde for to fall. |
5. Naut. To make fast (the end of a rope) in a particular way. (Also clinch.)
| 1803 Phil. Trans. XCIII. 322 To clench each of the ends round two of the ports, excepting one that was clenched round the main-mast. 1820 Scoresby Arctic Reg. II. 455 A new hawser..was taken under the ship's bottom, the end clenched to the mainmast. |
6. fig. To fix, confirm, drive home, settle conclusively (an argument, a bargain, etc.); usually with the notion of fastening securely by a finishing stroke (fig. from 1). Also clinch.
| c 1677 Marvell Growth Popery 9 bis, This Alliance..fixed at first by the Publick Interest..was by these Three Grants, as with three Golden Nails, sufficiently clenched and rivetted. 1682 State Govt. & Kingd. in Somers Tracts I. 187 To clench his Argument, produces this State of the Government and Kingdom. 1730 Fielding Author's Farce Wks. 1775 I. 187 Matrimony clenches ruin beyond retrieval. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. II. viii. 190 It is..the adaptation of the expression to the idea that clenches a writer's meaning. 1843 Dickens Mart. Chuz. i, This fact..would have utterly settled and clenched the business. 1883 J. R. Lumby in Queen's Printers' Bible Aids Gloss. s.v. Earnest, The primary meaning..is part-payment, to clench a bargain. |
† b. intr. (or with obj. sentence): To affirm emphatically or conclusively; to insist. Obs. rare.
| a 1400 Cov. Myst. 385 (Mätz.) There are other..that clenche, And prechyn, he is levyng that we slewe. |
c. To fix, settle.
| 1881 Rossetti King's Trag. xxxiv. Ballads & Sonn. 110 That eve was clenched for a boding storm. |
▪ III. † clench, v.2 Obs.
Also 4 clenke.
[Exact etymol. doubtful: Stratmann connects it with the stem of clink v.1: cf. MHG. klenken, to ring bells.]
To chatter, talk against.
| c 1315 Shoreh. 113 He compasyth venjaunce To hym that aȝen clenketh. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 80 Clenchyn a-ȝen (in wrawe speche) or chaueryn [? chatteryn] a-ȝen, for prowde herte, obgarrio. |
(To this vb. some refer clench in K. Horn (clench v.1 3), with sense ‘make to sound, twang’.)