Obs. exc. dial. By-form or deriv. form of CLINK, clinch, clench.
(Were it not for the mod. dial. use, we might suspect misprint of t for k in the quotations.)
1575. Turberv., Falconrie, 226. It shall not bee amysse, to clynte or nayle them faste together.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., III. iii. § 28. The ‘Statute of Præmunire’ … clinted [ed. (1845), II. 296, clinched] the naile which now was driven in.
1881. I. Wight Gloss., Clented, clenched; applied to horse-shoes.
