clutch

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To hold something tightly, usually with your hands.

   She clutched her bag tightly as she walked into the building.

2. 2
   noun

   The pedal or lever that connects and disconnects the engine from the gears in a vehicle.

   He released the clutch slowly and pressed the gas.

3. 3
   noun

   A tense, critical moment when success really matters.

   He always plays his best in the clutch.

Common collocations

• clutch pedal Noun + noun

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 clyċċ…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images