Word.ws English Dictionary

clinging to

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

Meaning of cling to

Verb

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

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cling, to.
  2. (broadly) To have an intense emotional dependency on (someone).
  3. (broadly, figuratively) To remain by (someone's) side; to refuse to leave the company of.

Questions about clinging to

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

Words near clinging to in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clinging to (page history and authors); cling to (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 to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clinging_to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.