Clutch Definition
Any device, mechanical, electromagnetic, or hydraulic, for engaging or disengaging a drive shaft.
- To search in desperation for a solution to a difficulty.
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Clutch
Origin of Clutch
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From Middle English clucchen, clicchen, cluchen, clechen, cleken, from Old English clyccan (“to clutch, clench”), 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.
From Wiktionary
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Alternative etymology derives Old English clyccan 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”).
From Wiktionary
Variant form of cletch, from Middle English cleken (“to hatch”), perhaps from Old Norse klekja (“to hatch”).
From Wiktionary
Variant of dialectal cletch Middle English clekken to hatch from Old Norse klekja
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Middle English clucchen from Old English clyccan
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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