Word.ws English Dictionary

clutch

/ˈklʌt͡ʃ/

clutch verb: to seize, as though with claws.

clutch: to seize, as though with claws
Image: Andy Dingley (scanner), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

clutch (third-person singular simple present clutches, present participle clutching, simple past and past participle clutched)

  1. (transitive) To seize, as though with claws.
    • to clutch power
    • A man may set the poles together in his head, and clutch the whole globe at one intellectual grasp.a. 1700, Jeremy Collier, A Thought
  2. (transitive) To grip or grasp tightly.
    • She clutched her purse tightly and walked nervously into the building.
    • Not that I haue the power to clutch my hand,c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. To win despite being the only remaining player on one's team, against several opponents.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:clutch.
  4. (broadly) To unexpectedly or luckily succeed in a difficult activity.

Noun (1)

clutch (plural clutches)

  1. The claw of a predatory animal or bird.
  2. (broadly) A grip, especially one seen as rapacious or evil.
    • I muſt have great leiſure, and little care of my ſelf, if I ever more come near the Clutches of ſuch a Giant, who ſeems to write with a Beetle inſtead of a Pen; […]1676, Ed[ward] Stillingfleet, “An Answer to T[homas] G[odden]’s Charge of Contradictions, Paradoxes, Reproach of the Second Council of Nice, School Disputes; and to His Parallel Instances”, in A...
    • Should when he pleaſes, and on whom he will / Wage war, with any or with no pretence / Of provocation, giv'n or wrong ſuſtained, / And force the beggarly laſt doit, by means / That his own humour dictates, from the clutch / Of poverty, that thus he may procure / His thouſands weary of penurious...1785, William Cowper, “Book V. The Winter Morning Walk.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 197
  3. A device to interrupt power transmission, commonly used to separate the engine and gearbox in a car.
  4. The pedal in a car that disengages power and torque transmission from the engine (through the drivetrain) to the drive wheels.
  5. Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.
  6. A fastener that attaches to the back of a tack pin to secure an accessory to clothing. (See Clutch (pin fastener).)
  7. A small handbag or purse with no straps or handle.
    • The clutch which I had made to save myself in falling had torn away from this chin-band and let the lower jaw drop on the breast, but little else was disturbed, and there was Colonel John Mohune resting as he had been laid out a century ago.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    clutch bag
  8. (US) An important or critical situation.
    • to come in clutch
    • And when it came to the clutch, Johnny Mize, who was washed up five years ago, would crack out a pinch double, or Mickey Mantle, who is not yet ready for the big leagues, would slam out a home run.1951 October 8, “Baseball: A Great Year”, in LIFE, page 48
  9. A difficult maneuver.

Adjective

clutch (comparative more clutch, superlative most clutch)

  1. (Canada, US) Performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.
    • NC State made the most of their overtime possession scoring a touchdown on some very clutch plays.2006, Bryan Hogan, Three Days for Goodbye, page 19
    • I start with his most obvious characteristic: he was clutch. He is Mr. Clutch. In the last chapter I mentioned that Bernie Williams was clutch, which was a valid assessment, but nobody on the Yankees was as clutch as Jeter was.2009, Scott Trocchia, The 2006 Yankees: The Frustration of a Nation, A Fan's Perspective, page 21

Noun (2)

clutch (plural clutches)

  1. (collective) A brood of chickens or a sitting of bird, monotreme or reptile eggs; a sitting.
    • For instance, baby chicks influence their mother’s behaviour by giving high piercing cheeps when they are lost or cold. This usually has the immediate effect of summoning the mother, who leads the chick back to the main clutch.1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 82
    Synonyms:
    setting, sitting
  2. (collective) A group or bunch (of people or things).
    • No longer would Britons routinely blame the national government when things went wrong. Instead they would demand action from a new clutch of elected mayors, police commissioners and the like.2012 September 22, “Innovation in Government: Britain's Local Labs”, in The Economist
    • And, so, although the Zeros knocked out four dive bombers (two of them permanently and two forced to abort), the other eleven made it to a position above Shōkaku, which pulled a neat evasive turn that sent the first clutch of thousand-pound bombs into the sea.2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 15:30 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022

Verb (2)

clutch (third-person singular simple present clutches, present participle clutching, simple past and past participle clutched)

  1. (collective, transitive) To hatch.

clutch meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

clutch in Hindi

clutch
शिकंजा śikañjā
to clutch
पकड़ना pakaṛnā
clutch, grasp, possession
हत्था hatthā

clutch in Tamil

உரசிணைப்பி, பிடி, கதுவி, வெட்பிணைப்பி, ஊடிணைப்பு, முட்டைகளின் தொகுதி

clutch in Marathi

क्लच

clutch in Urdu

to clutch
پکڑنا pakaṛnā
More languagesFewer languages
clutch in Bengali
আঁকড়ে ধরা
clutch in Telugu
క్లచ్, క్లచ్ చెయ్యడానికి
clutch in Malayalam
ക്ലച്ച് klaccŭ
clutch in Kannada
ಕದುಬು, ತುಡಕು, ಕಸಿ, ಬಿಗಿಹಿಡಿತ
clutch in Gujarati
ક્લચ
clutch in Odia
ମୁଠା muṭhā
clutch in Nepali
क्लच, क्लच गर्न
clutch in Tagalog
daklot
clutch in Indonesian
kopling, pedal kopling
clutch in Persian
کلاچ kelâč
clutch in Thai
เกาะ gɔ̀, ยึด yʉ́t, คว้า kwáa, ฉวย chǔai
clutch in Vietnamese
li hợp

Examples of clutch in a sentence

  • Is this a Dagger, which I ſee before me, [...] ? / Come, let me clutch thee: / I haue thee not, and yet I ſee thee ſtill.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
  • You scold yourself; you know it is only your nerves—and yet, and yet … In a little while, it is impossible to resist the terror that seizes you, and you are helpless in the clutch of an unseen horror.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LVII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page...
  • He is the player who has come through so often in the clutch during his days at Camarillo.1985 June 1, Johannes Telesaar, “Camarillo Loses in the 4-A Final by a Foot at First”, in Los Angeles Times:
  • Stempel came through in the clutch again.2013 May 14, Paul Ingrassia, Joseph B. White, Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with clutch

Synonyms of clutch

18 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of clutch

Forms of clutch

Verb
third-person singular presentclutches
present participleclutching
past participleclutched
pastclutched
alternative formcletch
alternative formclitch
alternative formcleach
alternative formcleak
alternative formcleek
alternative formcleik
alternative formclick
alternative formclouch
Noun
pluralclutches
Adjective
comparativemore clutch
superlativemost clutch

Past tense of clutch: clutched

Plural of clutch: clutches

Origin of 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”).

Variant form of cletch, from Middle English cleken (“to hatch”), perhaps from Old Norse klekja (“to hatch”).

Words formed from clutch

Phrases with clutch

Words that rhyme with clutch

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about clutch

What does clutch mean?
Clutch means to seize, as though with claws.
What is clutch in Hindi?
Clutch in Hindi is शिकंजा (śikañjā), पकड़ना (pakaṛnā), हत्था (hatthā). See Clutch meaning in Hindi.
How do you use clutch in a sentence?
Is this a Dagger, which I ſee before me, [...] ? / Come, let me clutch thee: / I haue thee not, and yet I ſee thee ſtill.
What part of speech is clutch?
Clutch can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce clutch?
Clutch is pronounced /ˈklʌt͡ʃ/.
What is the past tense of clutch?
The past tense of clutch is clutched.

Words near clutch in the dictionary

  1. clustrofobia
  2. clustroid
  3. clustroids
  4. CLUT
  5. clutamine
  6. clutch
  7. clutch artist
  8. clutch artists
  9. clutch at a straw
  10. clutch at straws
  11. clutch bag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clutch (page history and authors); पकड़ना (Hindi) (page history and authors); clutch (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clutch (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); پکڑنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); clutch (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clutch (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ക്ലച്ച് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); clutch (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clutch (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ମୁଠା (Odia) (page history and authors); clutch (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-clutch.ogg.

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