1. A fastening in which the end of a nail is turned over and driven back into the substance through which it has passed, or in which the end of a bolt is beaten down and flattened upon a metal ring or washer put round it for the purpose; the clinched point of a nail; a clinched nail or bolt. Sometimes CLENCH.
1659. T. Willsford, Archit., 25. Clinches may break, or the hooks, then are the shanks difficult to draw.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Shoeing of Horses, Cut them off and clinch them, so as the clinches may be hidden in the Hoof.
1889. T. Scrutton, in Letter. The ring on which the clinch is formed is called a ‘burr’ or ‘rove’ in boat-building.
2. Naut. ‘A method of fastening large ropes by a half-hitch, with the end stopped back to its own part by seizings’ (Adm. Smyth): that part of a rope which is clinched.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 22. To saue the Clinch of the Cable from galling.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), V. 1836. Her cable parted at the clinch.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v. Clinch, ‘The cable runs out to the clinch,’ means, there is no more to veer.
3. A thing that clutches, grips or fixes fast.
1822. G. W. Manby, Voy. Greenland (1823), 77. Whale louse … head … with four horns, two of which … serve as clinches, to fix the animals to the subject which they attack … they have six other clinches behind, with which they rivet themselves so fast to the whale, that they cannot be disengaged, but by cutting out the part.
4. A clinching or riveting together; the clinching of an argument, opinion, etc. Also CLENCH.
1855. Browning, Master Hugues, xi. I believe in you, but that’s not enough; Give my conviction a clinch! Ibid. (1878), Poets Croisic, lxxi. Welded lines with clinch Of ending word and word.
5. U.S. A struggle or scuffle at close grips.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Prof. Breakf.-t., iii. 64. No words, but, in the place thereof, a clean, straight, hard hit,… and the conflict terminated in one of those inglorious and inevitable Yankee clinches, followed by a general melée.
1881. Family Her., 12 March, 304. A citizen who met with a mishap in a bar-room ‘clinch.’
6. A sharp repartee that twists or turns about the meaning of a word; a word-play, a pun. Also CLENCH.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), John Garret’s Ghost, Ded. Wks. II. 176. Wit and mirth … made vp, and fashioned into Clinches, Bulls, Quirkes, [etc.]. [Taylor’s specimen of a clinch (p. 194): ‘A countryman being demanded how such a Riuer was called, that ranne through their Country: hee answered that they neuer had need to call a Riuer, for it alwayes came without calling.’]
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 61, ¶ 2. James the First … made very few bishops or privy-counsellors that had not some time or other signalised themselves by a clinch or a conundrum.
a. 1774. Goldsm., trans. Scarron’s Comic Rom. (1775), I. 49. Stunned with their puns and clinches. (Cf. CARRIWITCHET.)
7. (See quot.)
1873. Slang Dict., To get the clinch: to be locked up in jail.
8. Comb. [In some cases this is the verb-stem.]
Clinch-bolt, a bolt that is clinched; clinch-built a. = CLINKER-built; † clinch-fist, a grasping fellow, a miser; clinch-hammer, a hammer used for clinching; clinch-joint, the kind of joint used in clinch-work; clinch-nail, a nail of a kind adapted for clinching; clinch-ring, ‘a lap-ring or open ring, in which the parts on the sides of the opening overlap each other’ (Knight, Dict. Mech.); clinch-work, = CLINKER-WORK.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, III. (1703), 345/2. *Clinch-bolts are clinched with a Rivetting Hammer for drawing out.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Clench-bolt.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Clinch-built, Clinker, or overlapping edges.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 123. *Clench-hammers should be made of hard steel, with one flat end for clenching.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 3. Roue and *clinch-nailes.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xx. 499. In the year 1291 we find clinch-nails at Pevensey.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Clench-nails … are much used in boat-building, being such as can be driven without splitting the boards, and drawn without breaking.
1784. Lond. Chron., No. 4287. That no *clinch-work vessel … should be built of a larger burthen than 60 tons.
1787. Collect. Stat. Admir. Navy, etc. Act 27 Geo. III. c. 32. All vessels … whose Bottoms are Clench-Work.
1805. Naval Chron., XIV. 343. A new sort of Catamaran, built something like a Canoe, but clinch work.
