Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of clutch.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Lincoln may not have emerged from his log cabin clutching the Emancipation Proclamation, but what is remarkable about the man is the tenacity with which he held certain core principles and ideas throughout his life.

    The Path To Proclamation Allen C. Guelzo 2010

  • All this Argument From Tone pearl-clutching is a joke.

    Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Beatings will continue until morale improves 2010

  • It had been an easy enough business, only that in clutching the window frame, the jagged end of the splinter she had run into her hand caught and tore her flesh.

    Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land 1915

  • This is precisely one of those compositions that a cold, clear, shrewd, and sarcastic critic would delight in clutching into his merciless grasp, to tear it into pieces and strew the floor of his study with its shivering fragments.

    Review 1823

  • He sat out the final term clutching an eye pack above his left eye.

    AFL Latest News and Broadband 2009

  • His very soul was on fire at the idea of clutching the weak bishop in his hand, and crushing him with his strong grasp.

    The Last Chronicle of Barset 2004

  • After a little Alan said, with the fear which he could not name clutching at his heart, "Why did you say Graham might not be far away?"

    The Alaskan James Oliver Curwood 1903

  • His very soul was on fire at the idea of clutching the weak bishop in his hand, and crushing him with his strong grasp.

    The Last Chronicle of Barset Anthony Trollope 1848

  • The phrase pearl clutching, which means being shocked by something once-salacious that should now be seen as commonplace

    Slate Articles Torie Bosch 2012

  • I think I'll just live an unhealthy, enjoyable life, and die young and unmourned, clutching a kabab in my greedy fingers as I breathe my last.

    thecookscottage 2009

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