Other forms: clutches, clutching, clutched
To clutch is to hold something tight because you are afraid of losing it. A passenger clutching the handrail, a child clutching a toy in a crowd, a man clutching his chest halfway up the stairs.
Clutch is never calm — fear or pain comes with it, and when the grip fails the verb takes AT: he clutched at the rail and missed. The noun leads three separate lives. In a car with gears, the clutch is the pedal you press before you change gear. A clutch of eggs is what a bird lays in one go, which is why you also hear a clutch of awards or a clutch of photographers. And a clutch is a small handbag with no strap, the kind you have to hold. In American sport, clutch is praise: a clutch player scores when it matters most.
1verbclutchTo hold something tightly, especially out of fear.~2%
“She clutched the letter to her chest.”
2nounpedalThe pedal and mechanism that connect a car engine to the gears.~78%
“He pressed the clutch and moved into second.”
3noungroupA group of eggs laid at one time; a small group of anything.~16%
“The nest held a clutch of five pale eggs.”
4nounhandbagA small handbag with no handle or strap.~2%
“She carried a black clutch to the wedding.”
5adjectiveperformingPerforming well at the most important moment.~2%
“He is a clutch player in the final minutes.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Clutch comes from Old English clyċċan, 'to clutch, clench', through Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic words about balling something up. The noun has a second line behind it: Middle English cleche, 'claw, talon, hand', pulled into the same shape by the verb. A hand closing, and a claw — the word has been about grip from the start.
Proto-Germanic
*klukjaną
Proto-West Germanic
*klukkjan
Old English
clyċċan — to clutch, clench
Middle English
clucchen
English, today
clutch
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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA