clinches

Verb

clinch (third-person singular simple present clinches, present participle clinching, simple past and past participle clinched)

1. To bend and hammer the point of (a nail) so it cannot be removed.
2. To clasp; to interlock.
   • “Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the first chapter of Jonah—‘And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.’”1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 9, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
3. To fasten securely or permanently.
4. To make certain; to finalize.
   • I already planned to buy the car, but the color was what really clinched it for me.
5. To hold firmly; to clench

   Synonyms:

   clasp, grasp, grip, beclasp, begrasp, begrip, belock, clench, cling, clutch

6. To set closely together; to close tightly.
   • to clinch the teeth or the fist

   Synonyms:

   attach, join, put together, accouple, affix, assemble, associate, bewed, bind, clasp

See all 19 meanings of clinch