▪ I. clinch, n.1
(klɪnʃ)
Forms: 5 clynche, 8 clintch, 7– clinch.
[A variant of clench n.: cf. clinch v.1]
1. A fastening in which the end of a nail is turned over and driven back into the substance through which it has passed, or in which the end of a bolt is beaten down and flattened upon a metal ring or washer put round it for the purpose; the clinched point of a nail; a clinched nail or bolt. Sometimes clench.
| 1659 T. Willsford Archit. 25 Clinches may break, or the hooks, then are the shanks difficult to draw. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Shoeing of Horses, Cut them off and clinch them, so as the clinches may be hidden in the Hoof. 1889 T. Scrutton in Letter, The ring on which the clinch is formed is called a ‘burr’ or ‘rove’ in boat-building. |
2. Naut. ‘A method of fastening large ropes by a half-hitch, with the end stopped back to its own part by seizings’ (Adm. Smyth): that part of a rope which is clinched.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. v. 22 To saue the Clinch of the Cable from galling. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) V. 1836 Her cable parted at the clinch. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v. Clinch, ‘The cable runs out to the clinch,’ means, there is no more to veer. |
3. a. A thing which clutches, grips or fixes fast.
| 1822 G. W. Manby Voy. Greenland (1823) 77 Whale louse..head..with four horns, two of which..serve as clinches, to fix the animals to the subject which they attack..they have six other clinches behind, with which they rivet themselves so fast to the whale, that they cannot be disengaged, but by cutting out the part. |
b. The grip or hold (of plaster on a wall).
| 1897 F. C. Moore How to Build ii. 16 The lath should be furred out from the sheathing so as to secure a good ‘clinch’ or ‘key’ to the plaster. |
4. A clinching or riveting together; the clinching of an argument, opinion, etc. Also clench.
| 1855 Browning Master Hugues xi, I believe in you, but that's not enough; Give my conviction a clinch! 1878 ― Poets Croisic lxxi, Welded lines with clinch Of ending word and word. |
5. a. U.S. A struggle or scuffle at close grips.
| 1849 C. Lanman Lett. Alleghany Mts. vi. 50 On reaching the bottom, he found the wolf alive, when a ‘clinch fight’ ensued, and the hunter's knife completely severed the heart of the animal. 1860 O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. iii. 64 No words, but..a clean, straight, hard hit..and the conflict terminated in one of those inglorious and inevitable Yankee clinches followed by a general melée. 1881 Family Her. 12 Mar. 304 A citizen who met with a mishap in a bar-room ‘clinch.’ |
b. spec. in Boxing. Grappling at close quarters or holding after an exchange of blows.
| 1875 Amer. Cycl. XIV. 74/1 Unless there is a knock-down, the rounds usually terminate in a clinch. 1897 R. G. A. Allanson-Winn Boxing 329 Occasionally after a spell of in-fighting, but not in actually breaking away after a close or clinch, you may administer an excellent upper cut. 1901 R. Fitzsimmons Phys. Culture 152 Corbett seemed to think clinches were his best time for a knock-out blow. 1923 Tosswill Boxing Up-to-date 58 The best thing to do is to fall into a clinch, dropping forward with your hands resting on your opponent's arms, while your ribs and stomach are protected by your elbows. |
c. An embrace. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1901 ‘H. McHugh’ John Henry 25 A love clinch from Laura Jean Libbey's latest. 1929 W. Root in Bookman (N.Y.) Feb. 622/1 ‘Darling!’ and they go into a clinch. 1948 Wodehouse Spring Fever ii. 23 Nothing would have given Stanwood more pleasure than to have seen the young couple fading out on the clinch. 1959 J. Osborne Paul Slickey i. iv, The ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ go into a clinch. |
6. A sharp repartee that twists or turns about the meaning of a word; a word-play, a pun. Also clench.
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) John Garret's Ghost, Ded. Wks. ii. 176 Wit and mirth..made vp, and fashioned into Clinches, Bulls, Quirkes, etc. [Taylor's specimen of a clinch (p. 194): ‘A countryman being demanded how such a Riuer was called, that ranne through their Country: hee answered that they neuer had need to call a Riuer, for it alwayes came without calling’.] 1711 Addison Spect. No. 61 ¶2 James the First..made very few bishops or privy-counsellors that had not some time or other signalised themselves by a clinch or a conundrum. a 1774 Goldsm. tr. Scarron's Comic Rom. (1775) I. 49 Stunned with their puns and clinches. (Cf. carriwitchet.) |
7. (See quot. 1873.)
| 1847 G. W. M. Reynolds Myst. London III. xxv. 71/2 Should you do this and get the clinch. 1873 Slang Dict., To get the clinch: to be locked up in jail. |
8. Comb. [In some cases this is the verb-stem.]
clinch-bolt, a bolt that is clinched; clinch-built a. = clinker-built; † clinch-fist, a grasping fellow, a miser; clinch-hammer, a hammer used for clinching; clinch-joint, the kind of joint used in clinch-work; clinch-nail, a nail of a kind adapted for clinching; clinch plate, a plate on the inside of clinch-work; clinch-ring, ‘a lap-ring or open ring, in which the parts on the sides of the opening overlap each other’ (Knight Dict. Mech.); clinch-work, = clinker-work.
| a 1642 Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iii. (1704) 345/2 *Clinch-bolts are clinched with a Rivetting Hammer. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Clench-bolt. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Clinch-built, Clinker, or overlapping edges. 1889 [see clinch plate below]. |
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 123 *Clench-hammers should be made of hard steel, with one flat end for clenching. |
| 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 3 Roue and *clinch-nailes. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xx. 499 In the year 1291 we find clinch-nails at Pevensey. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Clench-nails..are much used in boat-building, being such as can be driven without splitting the boards, and drawn without breaking. |
| 1889 P. B. Du Chaillu Viking Age I. xii. 219 The boat is clinch-built; that is, the planks are held together by large iron bolts with round heads outside, and *clinch plates on the inside, at a distance of 5 ½ inches from each other. |
| 1784 Lond. Chron. No. 4287 That no *clinch-work vessel..should be built of a larger burthen than 60 tons. 1787 Collect. Stat. Admir. Navy, etc. Act 27 Geo. III. c. 32 All vessels..whose Bottoms are Clench-Work. 1805 Naval Chron. XIV. 343 A new sort of Catamaran, built something like a Canoe, but clinch work. |
▪ II. clinch, n.2 Sc.
[f. clinch v.2]
A limp, as by a man lame of one leg.
| 1790 A. Wilson Poet. Wks. 201 (Jam.) Wi' yowlin' clinch aul' Jennock ran. |
▪ III. clinch, v.1
(klɪnʃ)
Also 6 clinche, Sc. clynsch, 7 clinsh.
[A later variant of clench v.1; perh. only phonetic, but more prob. by assimilation of clench to the northern form clink, found a century earlier. To a great extent it is a simple synonym of clench, but at present there is a tendency to differentiate them in use, clench being alone used in certain senses (e.g. of the fist, the teeth, etc.), while clinch is at least the more common in others; see below.]
1. trans. To fix (a nail or bolt) securely, esp. by bending and beating back or flattening the point or end which has passed through a plank or plate of any kind; to make fast by such means. Also absol. Sometimes clench.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 134/33 To clinche, clingere, stringere. 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. xcvi. 384 Clinshed as other nailes be. a 1625 Fletcher Love's Cure ii. i, Thou hast hit the nail on the head, and I will give thee six pots for't, though I ne'er clinch shoe again. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. x. 175 Knocking in the nail overnight, and clinching it the next morning. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 248 To clinch the Nails. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Clinch..is to batter or rivet a bolt's end upon a ring or piece of plate iron; or to turn back the point of a nail that it may hold fast. 1883 Ld. Fitzgerald in Law Rep. 8 Appeal Cases 453 The girder which was clinched into the plaintiff's party-wall. |
† 2. a. To clasp, interlock, esp. to clasp (the hands) tightly together with the fingers interlocked. Obs.
| 1591 Percyvall Sp. Dict., Enclavijar los dedos, to clinch the hands with the fingers one betweene another. a 1701 Sedley Poems Wks. 1722 I. 32 Or dully hang, clinch'd in each others Feet [of bees]. |
† b. To close tightly (the hand or fist). Obs. Now always clench.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. iii. i. iii. (1651) 193 Like her..that supposed she could shake all the world with her finger, and was afraid to clinch her hand together. 1632 Sherwood To clinch the fist, serrer le poing. 1727 Swift Gulliver i. vi. 66 With my fist clinched. 1802 Med. Jrnl. VIII. 405 The patient..would..strike..her head and breast with her hands clinched. |
† c. intr. (for refl.). Of the hands, etc. Obs.
| 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 186 Toes that clinch together. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. xiii. 222 When I spoke the Words, my Hands would clinch together, and my Fingers press the Palms of my Hands. |
d. intr. To close and struggle at close grips. (Now U.S. Cf. clinch n.1 5.)
| 1828 Yankee May 174/3 A native Yankee..would never be the first to strike a blow, nor hardly ever the first to clinch, as he calls it. |
e. spec. in Boxing. To fall into a clinch (see prec. 5 b). Also trans. with person as obj.
| 1860 O. W. Holmes Elsie V. (1887) 39 The rough-and-tumble fighters all clinch. 1863 in H. D. Miles Pugilistica (1881) III. 516/2 The Yankee again ‘clinching’—we must borrow an Americanism which expresses more than our word ‘closing’—succeeded in once more putting on the ‘hug’ and throwing King heavily. 1887 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville) 17 Jan. 5/2 Glass returned with a blow on Bowen's neck. The men then clinched. 1893 Doran Sci. Self-Defense 84 You can also take this hold as your opponent endeavours to clinch you. 1899 Life of Bob Fitzsimmons 6 In the sixth round the men clinched. Ibid. 14 The clinching was of the hottest kind. 1910 J. J. Corbett My Life & Fights 26, I clinched with Kilrain. 1923 Tosswill Boxing Up-to-date 58 In competitions held under the auspices of the Royal Navy and Army..the command ‘Break away’ is given by the referee the moment the boxers clinch. |
f. intr. To embrace. (Cf. prec. 5 c.) colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1899 Ade Fables in Slang 60 George was sitting on the Front Porch with a good Side Hold on..Mabel... While they were Clinched, Mabel's Father..came down the Stairway. 1952 Wodehouse Pigs have Wings viii. 157 ‘I saw them together. Close together,’ said Lady Constance significantly. ‘God bless my soul! What, clinched together?’ ‘When I saw them, they were not actually embracing.’ 1953 Punch 26 Aug. 274/1 They..sit like lovers about to clinch. |
3. trans. Naut. To make fast the end of a rope in a particular way: see clinch n. 2.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Etalinguer, to clinch the cable to it's anchor. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. |
4. intr. To fix oneself, fasten on.
| 1793 tr. Buffon's Hist. Birds vi. 165 (T.) The savages held out a stick on which the birds clinched. |
5. trans. To make firm and sure (a matter, assertion, argument, bargain, etc.); to drive home; to make conclusive, confirm, establish. Also clench.
| a 1716 South Serm. VII. vii. (R.), The council of Trent..clincheth the business as effectually as possible. 1728 Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. iv. i, How stands your Affair with Miss ? C. Bas. It drives like a Nail, we want nothing now but a Parson, to clinch it. 1786 A. M. Bennett Juvenile Indiscr. I. 90 No man..knew better how to clinch a good bargain in his dealings. 1868 E. Edwards Raleigh I. x. 198 He clinches this argument by drawing a terrible picture. 1871 Freeman Hist. Ess. Ser. i. xi. 366 They clinched, as it were, the whole matter. |
† 6. trans. To secure, make fast. Obs. rare. (Cf. nail.)
| 1803 Nelson 18 Oct. in Nicolas Disp. (1845) V. 252 If he offers his services you may be sure I will then clinch him for Mrs. Nelson's brother. |
† 7. intr. To make clinches or puns, to pun, quibble. Obs. (Cf. clinch n. 6.) Also clench.
| 1648 News fr. Pembroke in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 384 I have given you Dr. Wall's place, for the weakest goes to the wall; you must give me leave to clinch. a 1688 Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Adv. Painter, Wks. 1705 II. 82 Let 'em all clinch round. |
¶ Combinations containing the vb.-stem, see at end of clinch n.1 8.
▪ IV. clinch, v.2 Sc.
Also clench.
To limp, halt.
| c 1430 Henryson Mor. Fab. 34 Clinching hee came that hee might not bee kend. 1513 Douglas æneis v. v. 65 The todir part, lamyt, clynschis. 1628 Z. Boyd Serm. in Zion's Flowers (1855) App. 32/2 The creples..would clinch out upon their stilts. 1767 W. Meston Poems 126 (Jam.) Brookie..Clench'd out of doors. |
▪ V. † clinch, v.3 Obs. rare.
By-form of clink v.1
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 81 Cleppyn or clynchyn. [1499 Pynson, Clyppyn or clynkyn, tinnio.] |