▪ I. clung, ppl. a. arch. and dial.
(klʌŋ)
Also 4–5 clong(e, 6 clounge.
[f. cling v.]
1. Congealed, congested, stiffened: see cling v.1
2. Drawn together, shrunk, or shrivelled, by the action of heat, cold, hunger, thirst, disease, etc.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 4581 Þai [ears of grain] war so clungun, dri, and tame. c 1325 Coer de L. 1385 Off tymber grete schydys clong. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 88 Pal and clungen was his chek. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 319 When thaire huske is drie and clonge. 1691 Ray. N.C. Words, Clung, closed up, or stopped, spoken of Hens when they lay not; it is usually said of any thing that is shrivelled or shrunk up. 1814 Month. Mag. XXXVIII. 437 The features, tho' clung, were of exquisite touch. |
b. Hide-bound.
| 1559 Cooper Thesaurus, Coriago, the sickenesse of cattall when they are clounge, that their skynnes dooe cleve fast to their bodies, hyde bounde. 1580 Baret Alv. 432 Hide⁓bound, or a sicknesse of cattle being called clung. |
3. Pinched with hunger, starving; clemmed.
| 1807 Tannahill Kebbuckston Wedding Poet. Wks. (1846) 138 The de'il fill his kyte wha gaes clung frae the meeting. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle iii. (1859) 95 Clung and famished the poor brute could no longer exist. |
4. Clinging, stiff, tenacious; esp. of soil; of the nature of heavy clay.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xix. (1495) 559 Holdith so faste and so is clonge. 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. x. 24 Crust-clung and Soale-bound soyles. 1750 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. I. i. 46 When their black earth works very clung and heavy, they seldom fail of having great crops. 1877 N.W. Lincolnsh. Gloss., Clung, stiff, tenacious, sticky. 1886 S.W. Lincolnsh. Wds. s.v. There's ten acres on it is clung; it can't be clunger. |
5. Improperly tough, whether through drought, or through damp.
| a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 208 The chaff of the chesses is clung, and wants to be mellowed in order to make it thresh the better. 1883 Hampsh. Gloss., Clung, hard, as wool when it has become dry and tough. |
b. Damp and tough.
| 1875 Parish Sussex Dial. s.v. The mown grass is spoken of as very clung after having been exposed to wet chilly weather, so that it has not hayed satisfactorily. 1876 Surrey Provinc., Clung, cold, damp; but expressed perhaps by clammy. |
6. Out of temper, sullen.
| 1877 N.W. Lincolnsh. Gloss., Clung..sullen, morose. 1887 Kentish Dial., Clung, withered, dull; out of temper. |
▪ II. clung
pa. tense and ppl. of cling v.
▪ III. † clung, v. Obs.
By-form of cling v.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 586 The hard yron..is willing to be drawne by the load stone..it claspeth and clungeth to it. 1607 T. Walkington Opt. Glass. 123 If it..be suffred to accrue & clung together. 1647 H. More Song Soul ii. App. xcii, Heavy clunging mists. Ibid. iii. iii. xliii, These near will to her clung. 1708–15 Kersey, To clung, to dry as Wood does, when laid up after it is cut. |