different between strait vs clutch

English

Alternative forms

• streight (obsolete)
• streit (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of string? (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?e?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t
• Homophone: straight

Adjective

strait (comparative straiter, superlative straitest)

1. (archaic) Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.
   • 1866, Algernon Swinburne, “Aholibah” in Poems and Ballads, London: John Camden Hotten, p. 311,^[1]

     Sweet oil was poured out on thy head

     And ran down like cool rain between

     The strait close locks it melted in.

   • 1894, Ernest Dowson, “To One in Bedlam” in The Second Book of The Rhymers’ Club, London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, p. 35,^[3]

     Those scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line

     His strait, caged universe, whereat the dull world stares,

     Pedant and pitiful.

2. (archaic) Righteous, strict.
3. (obsolete) Tight; close; tight-fitting.
4. (obsolete) Close; intimate; near; familiar.
5. (obsolete) Difficult; distressful.
   • 18th c., Thomas Secker, Sermons on Several Subjects, 2nd edition, 1771, Volume III, Sermon XI, p. 253,^[4]

     But to make your strait Circumstances yet straiter, for the Sake of idle Gratifications, and distress yourselves in Necessaries, only to indulge in Trifles and Vanities, delicate Food, shewish Dress, ensnaring Diversions, is every Way wrong.

6. (obsolete) Parsimonious; stingy; mean.

Translations

Usage notes

The adjective is often confused with straight.

Derived terms

• straitjacket
• strait-laced

Noun

strait (plural straits)

1. (geography) A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.
2. A narrow pass, passage or street.
3. A neck of land; an isthmus.
4. (often in the plural) A difficult position.
   • 1684, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached at Westminster-Abbey” in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, London: Thomas Bennett, 1692, p. 420,^[5]

     […] let no man, who owns the Belief of a Providence, grow desperate or forlorn, under any Calamity or Strait whatsoever […]

Derived terms

• dire straits
• Menai Strait

Translations

Verb

strait (third-person singular simple present straits, present participle straiting, simple past and past participle straited)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To confine; put to difficulties.
   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed’s Chronicles, London: 1577, Volume 1, The Historie of Englande, p. 3,^[6]

     After Bardus, the Celtes […] were in short tyme, and with small labour broughte vnder the subiection of the Giaunt Albion, the sonne of Neptune, who altering the state of things here in this yland, straited the name of Celtica and the Celtes within the boundes of Gallia […]

   • 1658, William Sanderson, A Compleat History of the Life and Raigne of King Charles, London: Humphrey Moseley et al., p. 885,^[7]

     The King, Duke of York, Prince Rupert and Maurice are still at Oxford closely surrounded by the Parliaments Forces, and the other not well resolving what course to take, all their Horse being about Faringdon, in expectation of the Lord Ashley with his Foot to joyn in a Body, if they be not prevented by Colonel Fleetwood and Rainsborough, straiting and allarming Oxford very often […]

2. (obsolete, transitive) To tighten.

Adverb

strait (comparative straiter, superlative straitest)

1. (obsolete) Strictly; rigorously.

Further reading

• strait on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Rattis, artist, atrist, ittars, star it, strati, traits

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?t??/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Etymology 1

From Middle English clucchen, clicchen, cluchen, clechen, cleken, from Old English cly??an (“to clutch, clench”), from Proto-Germanic *klukjan?, from Proto-Germanic *klu- (“to ball up, conglomerate, amass”), from Proto-Indo-European *glew- (“to ball up; lump, mass”).Cognate with Swedish klyka (“clamp, fork, branch”). The noun is from Middle English cleche, cloche, cloke ("claw, talon, hand"; compare Scots cleuk, cluke, cluik (“claw, talon”)), of uncertain origin, with the form probably assimilated to the verb.

Alternative etymology derives Old English cly??an from Proto-Germanic *kl?k- (“claw, hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *gl?k-, *?l??- (“claw, hand; to clutch, snatch”). If so, then cognate with Irish glac (“hand”).

Alternative forms

• cletch, clitch, cleach (dialectal)
• cleak, cleek, cleik, click (dialectal)
• clouch (obsolete)

Verb

clutch (third-person singular simple present clutches, present participle clutching, simple past and past participle clutched)

1. To seize, as though with claws. [from 14th c.]
   • a. 1700, Jeremy Collier, A Thought

     A man may set the poles together in his head, and clutch the whole globe at one intellectual grasp.
2. To grip or grasp tightly. [from 17th c.]

Synonyms

• (grip or grasp tightly): clasp, grasp, grip; See also Thesaurus:grasp

Translations

Noun

clutch (plural clutches)

1. The claw of a predatory animal or bird. [from 13th c.]
2. (by extension) A grip, especially one seen as rapacious or evil. [from 16th c.]

   • the clutch of poverty

   • 1676, Edward Stillingfleet, A defence of the discourse concerning the idolatry practised in the Church of Rome […]

     I must have […] little care of myself, if I ever more come near the clutches of such a giant.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 57

     You scold yourself; you know it is only your nerves—and yet, and yet... In a little while, it is impossible to resist the terror that seizes you, and you are helpless in the clutch of an unseen horror.

3. A device to interrupt power transmission, commonly used to separate the engine and gearbox in a car. [from 19th c.]
4. The pedal in a car that disengages power and torque transmission from the engine (through the drivetrain) to the drive wheels.
5. Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.
6. A small handbag or purse with no straps or handle.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     The clutch which I had made to save myself in falling had torn away from this chin-band and let the lower jaw drop on the breast, but little else was disturbed, and there was Colonel John Mohune resting as he had been laid out a century ago.

Synonyms

• (small handbag): clutch bag

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Variant form of cletch, from Middle English cleken (“to hatch”), perhaps from Old Norse klekja (“to hatch”).

Noun

clutch (plural clutches) (collective)

1. A brood of chickens or a sitting of eggs. [from 18th c.]
2. A group or bunch (of people or things). [from 20th c.]
   • 2012, The Economist, 22nd Sep., Innovation in Government: Britain's Local Labs

     No longer would Britons routinely blame the national government when things went wrong. Instead they would demand action from a new clutch of elected mayors, police commissioners and the like.

Derived terms

• clutch initiation
• subclutch

Translations

Verb

clutch (third-person singular simple present clutches, present participle clutching, simple past and past participle clutched)

1. (transitive) To hatch.

Etymology 3

Unknown; possibly analagous to clinch, pinch, which have similar senses.

Noun

clutch (plural clutches)

1. (US) An important or critical situation.

Translations

Adjective

clutch (comparative more clutch, superlative most clutch)

1. (US, Canada) Performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.

Derived terms

• clutch artist
• clutch hitter

References

• clutch at OneLook Dictionary Search
• clutch in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• cultch

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• kløtsj

Etymology

From English clutch

Noun

clutch m (definite singular clutchen, indefinite plural clutcher, definite plural clutchene)

1. a clutch (device between engine and gearbox)
2. clutch pedal

   trå in clutchen - step on the clutch

Synonyms

• kobling
• kopling

References

• “clutch” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• kløtsj

Etymology

From English clutch

Noun

clutch m (definite singular clutchen, indefinite plural clutchar, definite plural clutchane)

1. a clutch (device between engine and gearbox)
2. (short form of) clutch pedal (as in English)

Synonyms

• kopling

References

• “clutch” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?klot??/, [?klot??]

Noun

clutch m (plural clutches)

1. Alternative form of cloche