Talk:clench
I spotted the use of clench below, where it seems to mean clinch: I'm not sure whether this is a general alternative spelling, or a dialect rendering (since much of this novel's dialogue is written in Irish dialect).
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
- 'Nothing, as I suppose; I'll see her to-day; there's nothing to tell; but something, I think, to be done; it hasn't been set about rightly; 'tis a botched business hitherto—that's in my judgment.'
'Yet 'tis rather a strong case,' answered Mr. Lowe, superciliously.
'Rather a strong case, so it is, but I'll clench it, Sir; it ought to be certain.'
- 'Nothing, as I suppose; I'll see her to-day; there's nothing to tell; but something, I think, to be done; it hasn't been set about rightly; 'tis a botched business hitherto—that's in my judgment.'
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
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Sense 1 says "To squeeze; to grip or hold tightly"; that's fine. I am challenging sense 2: "To move two parts of something against each other", with the example of bruxism. I think this is a confusion: bruxism requires clenching the jaw so that the teeth can make contact, but the subsequent friction/rubbing is not the clenching part. I checked a recent Chambers Dictionary (c.2005) and it has no such sense. Equinox ◑ 08:57, 1 December 2018 (UTC)
- I agree. This might be a job for the OED.
- Also, the entry could stand some revision. It misses senses, eg clinch/clench a nail, omits transitive/intransitive distinctions, etc. “clench”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC. shows the number and complexity of older senses. DCDuring (talk) 16:53, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 19:32, 3 January 2019 (UTC)