different between linch vs clinch

English

Alternative forms

• lynch

Etymology

From Template:linh, link, from Old English hlinc (“a hill”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?n?/
• Rhymes: -?n?

Noun

linch (plural linches)

1. A ledge, a terrace; a right-angled projection; a lynchet.
   • 1910, An introduction to the study of local history and antiquities, page 387:

     Within ten years linches were formed; rain washed down the mould, some accident arrested it at a certain line, and a terrace was the result. Certainly the tendency is for the upper part of such a field to be denuded of mould, to be worked "to the bone," i.e. to the bare chalk or stone. But the first makers of linches had no choice. They had to farm on slopes or not at all, […]

   • 2013, Peter James, Nick Thorpe, Ancient Mysteries ?ISBN, page 289:

     Indeed, a map of 1844 marks some of the lower terraces on the southern and eastern flanks of the hill as "Tor Linches," a linch or lynchet being a terrace of land wide enough to plot. (Some linches were deliberately Fashioned; others came about as the land flattened into platforms through being worked.)

2. (rare, regional or obsolete) An acclivity; a small hill or hillock.
   • 15th century, anonymous, Mum and the Sothsegger (15th c.)

     I lay down on a linch to lithe my bones.

Derived terms

• linchy

Related terms

• lynchet

References

• linch in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “link, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• Wright, Joseph (1902) The English Dialect Dictionary?^[1], volume 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 610

English

Etymology

16th-century alteration of clench.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Verb

clinch (third-person singular simple present clinches, present participle clinching, simple past and past participle clinched)

1. To clasp; to interlock. [from 1560s]
2. To make certain; to finalize. [from 1716]
3. To fasten securely or permanently.
4. To bend and hammer the point of (a nail) so it cannot be removed. [17th century]
5. To embrace passionately.
6. To hold firmly; to clench.
7. To set closely together; to close tightly.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Duty of Servants at Inns

     try if the heads of the nails be fast, and whether they be well clinched

Synonyms

• (fasten securely): attach, join, put together; see also Thesaurus:join
• (hold firmly): clasp, grasp, grip; See also Thesaurus:grasp

Translations

Noun

clinch (plural clinches)

1. Any of several fastenings.
2. The act or process of holding fast; that which serves to hold fast; a grip or grasp.

3. (obsolete) A pun.
4. (nautical) A hitch or bend by which a rope is made fast to the ring of an anchor, or the breeching of a ship's gun to the ringbolts.
5. A passionate embrace.
   • 2015, Judith Arnold, Moondance

     More likely, he was letting her know that his visit this morning was not going to end in a clinch—or something steamier. It was going to be about sitting at a table, drinking coffee and talking.

6. In combat sports, the act of one or both fighters holding onto the other to prevent being hit or engage in standup grappling.

Translations

See also

• clinch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• clench
• clincher
• clinch nut