1. The act of grasping
   "The child's clutches at her mother's skirt showed her fear of the crowd";
   - clasp, clench, clutch, grasp, grip, hold

1. A coupling that connects or disconnects driving and driven parts of a driving mechanism
   "this year's model has an improved clutch"
    
2. A pedal or lever that engages or disengages a rotating shaft and a driving mechanism
   "he smoothly released the clutch with one foot and stepped on the gas with the other"; "He struggled to smoothly operate the clutch pedal while learning to drive a manual car";
   - clutch pedal
    
3. A tense critical situation
   "he is a good man in the clutch"
    
4. A collection of things or persons to be handled together
   "The teacher graded a clutch of exams";
   - batch
    
5. A number of birds hatched at the same time
   "The hen was protective of her clutch of chicks"
    
6. [N. Amer] A woman's strapless purse that is carried in the hand
   "She accessorized her evening gown with a sparkly clutch bag";
   - clutch bag

1. Take into your hands deliberately
   "She clutched her purse";
   - seize, prehend [archaic], take hold, take hold of
    
2. Embrace or grasp tightly
   "She clutched my arm when she got scared";
   - cling to, hold close, hold tight
    
3. Affect
   "Fear clutched the prisoners";
   - seize, get hold of, take hold of, take hold

Type of: accumulation, aggregation, assemblage, bag, brood, collection, coupler, coupling, engulf, foot lever, foot pedal, get hold of, grasping, handbag, ingulf [archaic], overcome, overpower, overtake, overwhelm, pedal, pocketbook, prehension, purse [N. Amer], seizing, sweep over, take, taking hold, temporary state, treadle

Part of: transmission, transmission system

Encyclopedia: Clutches