clinch

Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

A pun or quibble. To clinch, or to clinch the nail; to confirm an improbable story by another: as, A man swore he drove a tenpenny nail through the moon; a bystander said it was true, for he was on the other side and clinched it.

Related Words

  • Clinch

    ·noun A <<Pun>>. II. Clinch ·vt To hold firmly; to hold fast by grasping or embracing tightly. III...

    Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

  • clinch

    A particular method of fastening large ropes by a half hitch, with the end stopped back to its own p...

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  • clinch-built

    Clinker, or overlapping edges. ...

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  • clinch a business, to

    To finish it; to settle it beyond further dispute, as the recruit taking the shilling. ...

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  • jammed in a clinch

    The same as hard up in a clinch (which see). ♦ Jammed in a clinch like Jackson, involved in diffic...

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  • hard up in a clinch, and no knife to cut the seizing

    Overtaken by misfortune, and no means of evading it. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book