clutch 1 
(klŭch)
(klŭch)v. clutched, clutch·ing, clutch·es
v.tr.
1. To grasp and hold tightly: a child clutching a blanket.
2. To seize; snatch: clutched the banana from my hand.
v.intr.
1. To attempt to grasp or seize: clutch at a life raft.
2. To engage or disengage a motor vehicle's clutch.
n.
1. A hand, claw, talon, or paw in the act of grasping.
2. A tight grasp.
3. often clutches Control or power: caught in the clutches of sin.
4. A device for gripping and holding.
5.
a. Any of various devices for engaging and disengaging two working parts of a shaft or of a shaft and a driving mechanism.
b. The apparatus, such as a lever or pedal, that activates one of these devices.
6. A tense, critical situation: came through in the clutch.
7. A small, strapless purse that is carried in the hand.
adj.
Informal
Idiom: Informal
1. Being or occurring in a tense or critical situation: won the championship by sinking a clutch putt.
2. Tending to be successful in tense or critical situations: The coach relied on her clutch pitcher.
clutchat straws
To search in desperation for a solution to a difficulty.
[Middle English clucchen, variant of clicchen, from Old English clyccan; probably akin to Swedish klyka, crotch (of a tree), place where something branches.]
- Indo-European root: kwer-
- Indo-European root: kwes-
- Indo-European root: kwetwer-
- Indo-European root: kwo-
- Indo-European root: kwon-
- Indo-European root: kwrep-
- Indo-European root: kwr̥mi-
- Indo-European root: kwēt-
- Indo-European root: kā-
- Indo-European root: kō-
- Indo-European root: laks-
- Indo-European root: las-
- Indo-European root: lau-
- Indo-European root: leb-
- Indo-European root: leg-
- Indo-European root: legh-
- Indo-European root: legwh-
- Indo-European root: lei-
- Indo-European root: leid-
- Indo-European root: leig-
- Indo-European root: leigh-
- Indo-European root: leikw-
- Indo-European root: leip-
- Indo-European root: leis-
- Indo-European root: leis-