clamp

• IPA^(key): /klæmp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmp

From Middle Dutch clamp, klampe (“a clamp, hook”), from Proto-Germanic *klampō (“clamp, clasp, cramp”), related to Proto-West Germanic *klammjan.

Cognate with Middle Low German klampe (“hook, clasp”), German Klampfe, Klampe (“clamp, cleat”), Norwegian klamp (“clamp”), Alemannic German Chlempi.

clamp (plural clamps)

1. A brace, band, or clasp for strengthening or holding things together.
2. (medicine) An instrument used to temporarily shut off blood vessels, etc.
3. (UK) A parking enforcement device used to immobilise a car until it can be towed or a fine is paid; a wheel clamp.
4. A mass of bricks heaped up to be burned; or of ore for roasting, or of coal coking.
5. (agriculture) A compact pile of agricultural produce (such as root vegetables or silage) used for temporary storage.
6. A piece of wood (batten) across the grain of a board end to keep it flat, as in a breadboard.
7. (electronics) An electronic circuit that fixes either the positive or the negative peak excursions of a signal to a defined value by shifting its DC value.

Storage clamp on Wikipedia.Wikipedia Clamper (electronics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

clamp (third-person singular simple present clamps, present participle clamping, simple past and past participle clamped)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To fasten in place or together with (or as if with) a clamp.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

     As we burst into the room, the Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish passion. The great nostrils of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge, and the white sharp teeth, behind the full lips of the blood dripping mouth, clamped together like those of a wild beast.

2. (transitive) To hold or grip tightly.
3. (transitive) To modify (a numeric value) so it lies within a specific range by replacing values outside the range with the closest value within the range.
   • 2016, Jason Zink, Matt Pettineo, Jack Hoxley, Practical Rendering and Computation with Direct3D 11, page 253:

     After the depth range is clamped, the depth value is read from the depth stencil buffer, and the two values are compared with a selectable depth-comparison function […]

4. (UK, obsolete, transitive) To cover (vegetables, etc.) with earth.
5. (transitive) To immobilise (a vehicle) by means of a wheel clamp.

   I was only parked there for five minutes but my car was still clamped.

• clasp
• vise, vice

Imitative.

clamp (plural clamps)

1. (dated) A heavy footstep; a tramp.

clamp (third-person singular simple present clamps, present participle clamping, simple past and past participle clamped)

1. (intransitive, dated) To tread heavily or clumsily; to clump or clomp.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     the policeman with clamping feet

Probably borrowed from English clamp

• Audio

  (file)

clamp m (plural clamps)

1. (medical) clamp

• “clamp”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.