Word.ws English Dictionary

clinging on

clinging on is the present participle and gerund of cling on.

Meaning of cling on

Verb

cling on (third-person singular simple present clings on, present participle clinging on, simple past and past participle clung on)

  1. (figuratively, sometimes) To hold on tightly; to grip hard or adhere.
    • And although they were pushed harder than even Lennon might have expected on a night of galeforce winds, they clung on to the lead Ledley gave them for all they were worth until their rivals had blown themselves out and surrendered top spot.2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record

Questions about clinging on

What is clinging on the present participle and gerund of?
Clinging on is the present participle and gerund of cling on.

Words near clinging on in the dictionary

  1. clingier
  2. clingiest
  3. clingily
  4. clinginess
  5. clinging
  6. clinging on
  7. clinging to
  8. clinging to the skirts of
  9. clinging vine
  10. clinging vines
  11. clingingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clinging on (page history and authors); cling on (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “clinging on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clinging_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.