clutch
1 (klŭch)
[Middle English clucchen, from Old English clyccan.]
verb: clutched, clutch·ing, clutch·es.
transitive verb
- To grasp and hold tightly.
- To seize; snatch.
intransitive verb
- To attempt to grasp or seize: clutch at a life raft.
- To engage or disengage a motor vehicle's clutch.
noun
- A hand, claw, talon, or paw in the act of grasping.
- A tight grasp.
- Control or power. Often used in the plural: caught in the clutches of sin.
- A device for gripping and holding.
- Any of various devices for engaging and disengaging two working parts of a shaft or of a shaft and a driving mechanism.
- The apparatus, such as a lever or pedal, that activates one of these devices.
- A tense, critical situation: came through in the clutch.
- A clutch bag.
adjective
Informal- Being or occurring in a tense or critical situation: won the championship by sinking a clutch putt.
- Tending to be successful in tense or critical situations: The coach relied on her clutch pitcher.
clutch
2 (klŭch)
[Variant of dialectal cletchMiddle English clekken, to hatch, from Old Norse klekja.]
noun
- The complete set of eggs produced or incubated at one time.
- A brood of chickens.
- A group; a bunch.
transitive verb: clutched, clutch·ing, clutch·es.
- To hatch (chicks).
