See also CLINCH. [f. CLENCH v.]
I. That which clenches or is clenched.
1. That part of a nail or bolt which is turned back in clenching. Also CLINCH.
1598. Stow, Surv., 101. The roofe of this hall is … wrought of the like boorde, and nayled with rugh and clench.
1617. Markham, Caval., VI. 62. Holding onely by the weakest part of the naile, which is the very point of the clench.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Retraits, Knock gently on the top of the Clenches of the lame Foot.
1868. Regul. & Ord. Army, ¶ 571. Shoes are to be fastened, and projecting clenches reduced.
2. Naut. The CLINCH of a cable.
1804. A. Duncan, Mariner’s Chron., III. 111. The sheet-cable tore out with … violence … till the clench brought up the ship.
II. The action of clenching.
3. In various senses of the vb.; e.g., a grasp, grip, clutch; tight closure of the teeth, fist, etc.; secure fastening of a nail, etc.; fig. conclusive confirmation of an argument, etc.
1779. Projects, in Ann. Reg., 103/2. The laths … ought to be laid … close to each other … to allow of a proper clench for the rough plaster.
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., xiv. (1858), 465. The two or three pilgrims … keep their hands fixed in it with a clench never relaxed.
1865. Mrs. Whitney, Gayworthys, I. 220. He set [his teeth] tight…. He barely relaxed their clench.
† 4. A play on words, pun, quibble. Obs. or arch. Also CLINCH.
1638. Nabbes, Covent Gard., IV. iii. I have knowne a Countrey fellow full of knavish clinches.
1668. Dryden, Dram. Poesie, 47. To begin, then, with Shakespeare…. He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating into clenches, his serious swelling into bombast.
1728. Pope, Dunc., I. 61. One poor word a hundred clenches makes.
1817. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit., Royal Promotions, II. 330. Our Henry VII. made a viceroy of Ireland for the sake of a clench.
5. = CLINCH sb. 5.
1880. Mrs. Parr, Adam & Eve, xxviii. 395. I ain’t goin’ to be ‘jammed in a clench, like Jackson.’
6. Comb. In most cases the combinations are now written CLINCH-, which see.
