clenching

clenching

1. present participle and gerund of clench

clenching (plural clenchings)

1. The act by which something (a fist, a jaw, etc.) is clenched.
   • 1965, Edward J. Murray, Sleep, dreams, and arousal, page 151:

     Many of the clenchings [of muscles] were uncoordinated, and one would guess that they occurred more and more as the sleep synchronized.

clenching (comparative more clenching, superlative most clenching)

1. Alternative form of clinching (“that settles something definitely”)
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     Possibly I might be blamed a bit for my truantry, but the recapture of the Hispaniola was a clenching answer, and I hoped that even Captain Smollett would confess I had not lost my time.