Forms: 3–5 clenche, (pa. t. and pple. 4 clente, 4–6 cleynt), 7– clench. See also CLINCH, CLINK v.2 [ME. clench-en (also in York Myst. cleyngk):—OE. clęnc(e)an, in beclęncan = OHG. chlankhan, chlęnkan, klenkan, MHG. klenken, to fasten closely together, tie, knot, entwine:—OTeut. type *klankjan, a causal deriv. of *klink-, klank-, klunk-, co-existing with kling-, klang-, klung- (see CLING), app. in the sense ‘to cling, stick fast, adhere’; so that klankjan was ‘to make to stick firmly together, to rivet.’ In the same sense Du., EFris. and LG. have klinken, Da. klinke, Sw. klinka, which are closely related (though not identical) formations. Northern Eng. and Sc. have also clink from 15th c.; and from the 16th c. onward, clench was frequently made into clinch. In current use clench and clinch are used indifferently in some senses, in some clench alone is used, and in others clinch is app. preferred: see CLINCH, and cf. the senses below.]
1. trans. To fix securely, make fast, as with nails, bolts, or the like; to secure (a nail or bolt) by beating back the point or end with a hammer after driving it through anything; to fasten (anything) by so clenching a nail or bolt; to rivet. Also absol. (In reference to a nail or the like, CLINCH is apparently more usual.)
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1206. Ich wot ȝef smiþes schal uvele clenche.
c. 1305. Leg. Rood (1871), 138. Þe Cros … Whon crist for vs þer-on was cleynt.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 259. Your perle … is in cofer, so comly clente.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1133. Yclenched.
c. 1440. York Myst., viii. 106. It sall be cleyngked euer-ilka dele, With nayles þat are both noble and newe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 80. Clenchyn, retundo, repando.
1607. Markham, in Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 323. And is clenched as other nails be.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 48. The Rings that were clenched on the ends of her Bolts.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., II. 557. Tough iron plates were clenched to make it strong.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuild., xiii. 251. Their ends being turned back outside the plates and beaten down or clenched.
fig. 1621. Sanderson, 12 Serm. (1632), 415. Clench’t and riveted to their cures.
b. intr. (for refl.)
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 107. The fastenings … clench or turn upon the timbers.
1881. Mechanic, § 326. They will not clench.
2. To set firmly together, close tightly (the fingers, fist, teeth). (Formerly also CLINCH.)
[1632. Sherwood, To clench, comme to clinch. To clinch the fist, serrer le poing.]
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), 54. Clench the Fist.
1799. Sheridan, Pizarro, II. iv. I clench my hand, and fancy still it grasps a sword.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 392. The lower jaw had become clenched, and the teeth … strongly closed.
1855. Kingsley, Heroes, III. (1868), 36. Her eyebrows were knit and her lips clenched with everlasting care and pain.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 608. She … clench’d her fingers till they bit the palm.
b. fig. To brace up (one’s nerves).
1842. Tennyson, Love & Duty, 75. Like those, who clench their nerves to rush Upon their dissolution.
1867. E. Luscombe, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cv. 19. The three youths … had clenched their nerves for the climax of agony.
c. intr. for refl.
1843. E. Jones, Poems Sens. & Event, 151. Through Some dolphin’s body nervously they [a shark’s teeth] clench.
3. trans. To grasp firmly, grip, clutch; to hold firmly in one’s grasp.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 1476. He sette him on þe benche His harpe for to clenche.
1697. Dryden, Virgil (1806), II. 212. Heroes, whose dismember’d hands yet … clench the pointed spear.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Poems, Wks. 1764, I. 290. Their torpescent soul Clenches their coin.
1817. Coleridge, Lay Serm., 387. Men who clench with one hand what they have grasped with the other.
fig. 1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, III. VII. vii. 153–4 (L.). His heart clenched the idea as a diver grasps a gem.
† 4. intr. To fasten on; to cling. Obs.
a. 1500. King & Barker, 100, in Hazl., E. P. P. (1864), 9. The barker cleynt on hem fast; He was sor aferde for to fall.
5. Naut. To make fast (the end of a rope) in a particular way. (Also CLINCH.)
1803. Phil. Trans., XCIII. 322. To clench each of the ends round two of the ports, excepting one that was clenched round the main-mast.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 455. A new hawser … was taken under the ship’s bottom, the end clenched to the main-mast.
6. fig. To fix, confirm, drive home, settle conclusively (an argument, a bargain, etc.); usually with the notion of fastening securely by a finishing stroke (fig. from 1). Also CLINCH.
c. 1677. Marvell, Growth Popery, 9 bis. This Alliance … fixed at first by the Publick Interest … was by these Three Grants, as with three Golden Nails, sufficiently clenched and rivetted.
1682. State Govt. & Kingd., in Somers, Tracts, I. 187. To clench his Argument, produces this State of the Government and Kingdom.
1730. Fielding, Author’s Farce, Wks. 1775, I. 187. Matrimony clenches ruin beyond retrieval.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., II. viii. 190. It is … the adaptation of the expression to the idea that clenches a writer’s meaning.
1843. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., i. This fact … would have utterly settled and clenched the business.
1883. J. R. Lumby, in Queen’s Printers’ Bible Aids, Gloss. s.v. Earnest, The primary meaning … is part-payment, to clench a bargain.
† b. intr. (or with obj. sentence): To affirm emphatically or conclusively; to insist. Obs. rare.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 385 (Mätz). There are other … that clenche, And prechyn, he is levyng that we slewe.
c. To fix, settle.
1881. Rossetti, King’s Trag., xxxiv. Ballads & Sonn. 110. That eve was clenched for a boding storm.
