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Clinch vs Couple - What's the difference?

clinch | couple | Related terms |

In obsolete terms the difference between clinch and couple

is that clinch is a pun while couple is that which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.

As verbs the difference between clinch and couple

is that clinch is to clasp; to interlock while couple is to join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).

As nouns the difference between clinch and couple

is that clinch is any of several fastenings while couple is two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.

As a determiner couple is

a small number of.

clinch

English

Verb

(es)
  • To clasp; to interlock.
  • To make certain; to finalize.
  • I already planned to buy the car, but the color was what really clinched it for me.
  • *{{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=October 29 , author=Neil Johnston , title=Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Vincent Kompany was sent off after conceding a penalty that was converted by Stephen Hunt to give Wolves hope. But Adam Johnson's curling shot in stoppage time clinched the points.}}
  • To fasten securely or permanently.
  • To bend and hammer the point of (a nail) so it cannot be removed.
  • To embrace passionately.
  • To hold firmly; to clench.
  • * Dryden
  • Clinch the pointed spear.
  • To set closely together; to close tightly.
  • to clinch the teeth or the fist
    (Jonathan Swift)

    Noun

    (es)
  • Any of several fastenings.
  • The act or process of holding fast; that which serves to hold fast; a grip or grasp.
  • to get a good clinch of an antagonist, or of a weapon
    to secure anything by a clinch
  • (obsolete) A pun.
  • (Alexander Pope)
  • (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.
  • A passionate embrace.
  • See also

    * (wikipedia "clinch") * clench * clincher * clinch nut

    couple

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
  • * 1729 , (Jonathan Swift), (A Modest Proposal)
  • I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders;
  • Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
  • * 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
  • (label) A small number.
  • * 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
  • A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle
  • * 1891 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Red-Headed League)
  • ‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’
  • * 1902 , , Across Coveted Lands :
  • When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.}}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.}}
  • One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
  • (label) Two forces that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction (and acting along parallel lines), thus creating the turning effect of a torque or moment.
  • (label) A couple-close.
  • (label) That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.
  • * (w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)
  • It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples ; they should be of the same size and humour.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • I'll go in couples with her.

    Usage notes

    * The traditional and still most broadly accepted usage of be used only as a noun and not as a determiner in formal writing. * "A couple of things" or people may be used to mean two of them, but it is also often used to mean any small number. *: The farm is a couple of miles off the main highway [=a few miles away]. *: We’re going out to a restaurant with a couple of friends [=two friends]. *: Wait a couple of minutes [=two minutes or more].

    Synonyms

    * (two partners) * (two things of the same kind) brace, pair * (a small number of) few, handful

    Derived terms

    * bridal couple * coupla * couplezilla * couple-close * galvanic couple * voltaic couple

    Determiner

    (head)
  • (informal) A small number of.
  • Verb

    (coupl)
  • To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
  • Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
    I've coupled our system to theirs.
  • (dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
  • * (rfdate),
  • A parson who couples all our beggars.
  • To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
  • * 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
  • On their wedding night they coupled nine times.
  • * 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405
  • She had the brilliant inventor and craftsman Daedalus construct her an artificial cow, in which she hid and induced the bull to couple with her [...]

    Derived terms

    * coupling (noun) * decouple, decoupled * uncouple