Clutch vs Couple - What's the difference?
clutch | couple |
To seize, as though with claws.
* Collier
* Shakespeare
To grip or grasp tightly.
* Shakespeare
The claw of a predatory animal or bird.
(by extension) A grip, especially one seen as rapacious or evil.
* Cowper
* Carlyle
* Bishop Stillingfleet
* 1919 ,
A device to interrupt power transmission, commonly used between engine and gearbox in a car.
The pedal in a car that disengages power transmission.
Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.
A small handbag or purse with no straps or handle.
* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
(US) An important or critical situation.
*
*
*
*
*
(US) Performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.
*
* 2009 , Scott Trocchia, The 2006 Yankees: The Frustration of a Nation, A Fan's Perspective , page 21:
*
A brood of chickens or a sitting of eggs.
A group or bunch (of people or things).
* 2012 , The Economist, 22nd Sep.,
a (l) (device between engine and gearbox )
clutch pedal
Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
* 1729 , (Jonathan Swift), (A Modest Proposal)
Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
(label) A small number.
* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
* 1891 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Red-Headed League)
* 1902 , ,
* , chapter=1
, title= *{{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)
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
(informal) A small number of.
To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
(dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
* (rfdate),
To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
* 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
* 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405
As verbs the difference between clutch and couple
is that clutch is to seize, as though with claws while couple is .As a noun clutch
is the claw of a predatory animal or bird or clutch can be a brood of chickens or a sitting of eggs.As an adjective clutch
is (us) performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.clutch
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) clucchen, clicchen, cluchen, clechen, cleken, from (etyl) . Cognate with (etyl) , of uncertain origin, with the form probably assimilated to the verb. Alternative etymology derives Old English clyccan from (etyl) .Alternative forms
* (l), (l), (l) (dialectal) * (l), (l), (l), (l) (dialectal) * (l) (obsolete)Verb
(es)- to clutch power
- A man may set the poles together in his head, and clutch the whole globe at one intellectual grasp.
- Is this a dagger which I see before me ? / Come, let me clutch thee.
- She clutched her purse tightly and walked nervously into the building.
- Not that I have the power to clutch my hand.
Noun
(es)- the clutch of poverty
- an expiring clutch at popularity
- I must have little care of myself, if I ever more come near the clutches of such a giant.
- You scold yourself; you know it is only your nerves—and yet, and yet... In a little while it is impossible to resist the terror that seizes you, and you are helpless in the clutch of an unseen horror.
- The clutch which I had made to save myself in falling had torn away this chin-band and let the lower jaw drop on the breast; but little else was disturbed, and there was Colonel John Mohune resting as he had been laid out a century ago.
Synonyms
* clutch bag (small handbag)Adjective
(en adjective)- I start with his most obvious characteristic: he was clutch'. He is Mr. '''Clutch'''. In the last chapter I mentioned that Bernie Williams was '''clutch''', which was a valid assessment, but nobody on the Yankees was as ' clutch as Jeter was.
Etymology 2
Variant form of (cletch), from (etyl) .Noun
(es)Innovation in Government: Britain's Local Labs
- No longer would Britons routinely blame the national government when things went wrong. Instead they would demand action from a new clutch of elected mayors, police commissioners and the like.
Alternative forms
*Noun
(nb-noun-m1)- trå in clutchen - step on the clutch
Synonyms
* (l) * (l)References
* ----couple
English
Noun
(en noun)- I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders;
- A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle
- ‘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.’
Across Coveted Lands:
- When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore
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.}}
- It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples ; they should be of the same size and humour.
- 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, handfulDerived terms
* bridal couple * coupla * couplezilla * couple-close * galvanic couple * voltaic coupleDeterminer
(head)Verb
(coupl)- Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
- I've coupled our system to theirs.
- A parson who couples all our beggars.
- On their wedding night they coupled nine times.
- 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 [...]