clinch

16th-century alteration of clench.

• IPA^(key): /klɪnt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪntʃ

clinch (third-person singular simple present clinches, present participle clinching, simple past and past participle clinched)

1. To bend and hammer the point of (a nail) so it cannot be removed. [from 1560s]
2. To clasp; to interlock.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 9, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     “Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the first chapter of Jonah—‘And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.’”

3. To fasten securely or permanently.
4. To make certain; to finalize. [from 1716]

   I already planned to buy the car, but the color was what really clinched it for me.

   • 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Vincent Kompany was sent off after conceding a penalty that was converted by Stephen Hunt to give Wolves hope. But Adam Johnson's curling shot in stoppage time clinched the points.

5. To hold firmly; to clench

   Synonyms: clasp, grasp, grip; see also Thesaurus:grasp

6. To set closely together; to close tightly.

   Synonyms: attach, join, put together; see also Thesaurus:join

   to clinch the teeth or the fist

   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Duty of Servants at Inns:

     try if the heads of the nails be fast, and whether they be well clinched

7. To hold a boxing opponent with one or both arms so as to avoid being hit while resting momentarily [1860s]
8. To secure a spot (e.g., at the divisional championship) before the end of regular season play by having an insurmountable lead.
   • 2023 August 31, Seattle Times:

     It put the U.S. on the brink of clinching a spot in the quarterfinals.

9. To embrace passionately.

clinch (plural clinches)

(Sense 6) One wrestler is trying to get the back.

1. Any of several fastenings.
2. The act or process of holding fast; that which serves to hold fast.

   Synonyms: grip, grasp

   to get a good clinch of an antagonist, or of a weapon

   to secure anything by a clinch

3. (obsolete) A pun.
4. (nautical) A hitch or bend by which a rope is made fast to the ring of an anchor, or the breeching of a ship's gun to the ringbolts.
5. A passionate embrace.
   • 2015, Judith Arnold, Moondance:

     More likely, he was letting her know that his visit this morning was not going to end in a clinch—or something steamier. It was going to be about sitting at a table, drinking coffee and talking.

   • 2021 June 25, Marina Hyde, “Matt Hancock, the one-time sex cop now busted for a dodgy clinch”, in The Guardian‎:

     So, then, to the health secretary’s “steamy clinch” with Gina Coladangelo, the lobbyist and long-term friend he took on as an aide last year […]

6. (wrestling, combat sports) The act of one or both fighters holding onto the other to prevent being hit or engage in standup grappling.
7. (slang, archaic) A prison sentence.
   • 1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King:

     COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?

• clinch-built

• → Czech: klinč
• → German: Clinch
• → French: clinch
• → Portuguese: clinche
• → Russian: клинч (klinč)
• → Serbo-Croatian: klȉnč
• → Polish: klincz
• → Swedish: klinch

• clench
• clincher
• clinch nut

• clinch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from English clinch.

• IPA^(key): /klintʃ/, /klinʃ/

clinch m (plural clinchs)

1. clinch