clamp
/ˈklæmp/
clamp noun: a brace, band, or clasp for strengthening or holding things that are apart together.
Noun (1)
clamp (plural clamps)
- A brace, band, or clasp for strengthening or holding things that are apart together.
- An instrument used to temporarily shut off blood vessels, etc.
- A parking enforcement device used to immobilise a car until it can be towed or a fine is paid; a wheel clamp.
- A pile of materials to be heated in a controlled way, stacked or heaped together with fuel so that the fire permeates the pile; the material of interest may be bricks to be fired, ore for roasting, coal for coking, or wood to be charcoalized.
- [T]he pots would be stacked in a heap, covered with wood chippings and brushwood and domed over with turves, leaving a few air vents around the sides. When complete the clamp would be fired[.]1983, Barry Cunliffe, chapter 8, in Danebury Hillfort, Stroud: Tempus
- A compact pile of agricultural produce (such as root vegetables or silage) used for temporary storage (often covered with straw, earth, or both).
- A piece of wood (batten) across the grain of a board end to keep it flat, as in a breadboard.
- An electronic circuit that fixes either the positive or the negative peak excursions of a signal to a defined value by shifting its DC value.
Verb (1)
clamp (third-person singular simple present clamps, present participle clamping, simple past and past participle clamped)
- To fasten in place or together with (or as if with) a clamp.
- As we burst into the room, the Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish passion. The great nostrils of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge, and the white sharp teeth, behind the full...1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC
- To hold or grip tightly.
- To modify (a numeric value) so it lies within a specific range by replacing values outside the range with the closest value within the range.
- After the depth range is clamped, the depth value is read from the depth stencil buffer, and the two values are compared with a selectable depth-comparison function […]2016, Jason Zink, Matt Pettineo, Jack Hoxley, Practical Rendering and Computation with Direct3D 11, page 253
- To cover (vegetables, etc.) with earth.
- To immobilise (a vehicle) by means of a wheel clamp.
- I was only parked there for five minutes but my car was still clamped.
Noun (2)
clamp (plural clamps)
- A heavy footstep; a tramp.
Verb (2)
clamp (third-person singular simple present clamps, present participle clamping, simple past and past participle clamped)
Proper noun capitalized: Clamp
Clamp (plural Clamps)
- A surname.
clamp meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
clamp in Hindi
- woodworking tool
- शिकंजा śikañjā
clamp in Tamil
- திருக்கவ்வி, பிடிகருவி, பற்றி, கிடுக்கி, கௌவி, கவ்வி
clamp in Marathi
- क्लॅम्प, क्लँप
clamp in Urdu
- woodworking tool
- شکنجه śikañjā
More languagesFewer languages
- clamp in Bengali
- ক্ল্যাম্প, চিমটি
- clamp in Telugu
- క్లాంప్, క్లాంప్ చేయడానికి, క్లాంప్ చెయ్యడానికి
- clamp in Malayalam
- കെട്ട്, ക്ലാമ്പ്, ബലമായി ചവുട്ടിയുള്ള നടത്തം
- clamp in Kannada
- ಪತ್ತುಗೆ, ಇರುಕುಗೆ, ಬೀಗ, ಅಗಣಿ
- clamp in Punjabi
- ਚੂੰਢੀ cūṇḍhī
- clamp in Gujarati
- ક્લેમ્પ, ક્લૅમ્પ, ક્લેમ્બ
- clamp in Odia
- କ୍ଲାମ୍ପ୍, କ୍ଲାମ୍ପ, କ୍ଲ୍ଯ଼ାମ୍ପ୍
- clamp in Nepali
- क्ल्याम्प, क्लेम्प, क्लाम्प
- clamp in Arabic
- مَشْبَك mašbak
- clamp in Persian
- گیره gire
Examples of clamp in a sentence
- The fitter was chipping and filing a workpiece clamped in his vise.
- Noncrushing surgical clamps avoid devitalizing the cells of arterial walls.
- The government aims to clamp down on underage drinking.
Forms of clamp
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | clamps |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | clamps |
| present participle | clamping |
| past participle | clamped |
| past | clamped |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Clamps |
Origin of clamp
From Middle Dutch clamp, klampe (“a clamp, hook”), from Proto-Germanic *klampō (“clamp, clasp, cramp”), related to Proto-West Germanic *klammjan. Cognate with Middle Low German klampe (“hook, clasp”), German Klampfe, Klampe (“clamp, cleat”), Norwegian klamp (“clamp”), Alemannic German Chlempi.
Imitative.
From clamp, a metonymic occupational surname for someone who worked with this tool.
Words formed from clamp
- alcohol clamp
- alligator clamp
- C-clamp
- clamp connection
- clamp-down
- clampless
- clamplike
- clamp stand
- clampy
- clover clamp
- cryoclamp
- declamp
- F clamp
- G-clamp
- hose clamp
- microclamp
- nipple clamp
- paper clamp
- patch clamp
- rope clamp
- self-clamp
- sliding clamp
- wheel-clamp
- clampable
- clamp down
- clampee
- clamper
- clamp off
- reclamp
- unclamp
Phrases with clamp
Words that rhyme with clamp
Questions about clamp
- What does clamp mean?
- Clamp means a brace, band, or clasp for strengthening or holding things that are apart together.
- What is clamp in Hindi?
- Clamp in Hindi is शिकंजा (śikañjā). See Clamp meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is clamp?
- Clamp can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce clamp?
- Clamp is pronounced /ˈklæmp/.
- What is the plural of clamp?
- The plural of clamp is clamps.
Words near clamp in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: clamp (page history and authors); Clamp (page history and authors); clamp (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clamp (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clamp (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clamp (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clamp (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clamp (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਚੂੰਢੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); clamp (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clamp (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clamp (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-clamp.ogg.
Cite this entry: “clamp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clamp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.