clutch
Meanings
- To seize, as though with claws.
- To grip or grasp tightly.
- To win despite being the only remaining player on one's team, against several opponents.
- To unexpectedly or luckily succeed in a difficult activity.
- The claw of a predatory animal or bird.
- A grip, especially one seen as rapacious or evil.
- A device to interrupt power transmission, commonly used to separate the engine and gearbox in a car.
- The pedal in a car that disengages power and torque transmission from the engine (through the drivetrain) to the drive wheels.
- Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.
- A fastener that attaches to the back of a tack pin to secure an accessory to clothing. (See Clutch (pin fastener).)
- A small handbag or purse with no straps or handle.
- An important or critical situation.
- A difficult maneuver.
- Performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.
- A brood of chickens or a sitting of eggs; a sitting.
- A group or bunch (of people or things).
- To hatch.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English clucchen, clicchen, cluchen, clechen, cleken, from Old English clyċċan (“to clutch, clench”), from Proto-West Germanic *klukkjan, from Proto-Germanic *klukjaną, from Proto-Germanic *klu- (“to ball up, conglomerate, amass”), from Proto-Indo-European *glew- (“to ball up; lump, mass”). Cognate with Swedish klyka (“clamp, fork, branch”). The noun is from Middle English cleche, cloche, cloke ("claw, talon, hand"; compare Scots cleuk, cluke, cluik (“claw, talon”)), of uncertain origin, with the form probably assimilated to the verb. Alternative etymology derives Old English clyċċan from Proto-Germanic *klēk- (“claw, hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *glēk-, *ǵlēḱ- (“claw, hand; to clutch, snatch”). If so, then cognate with Irish glac (“hand”).