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What is the difference between purse and clutch?

purse | clutch |

In us terms the difference between purse and clutch

is that purse is a handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items while clutch is performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.

As nouns the difference between purse and clutch

is that purse is a small bag for carrying money while clutch is the claw of a predatory animal or bird.

As verbs the difference between purse and clutch

is that purse is to press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude while clutch is to seize, as though with claws.

As an adjective clutch is

performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.

purse

English

(wikipedia purse)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small bag for carrying money.
  • * 1550 Mierdman, Steuen, The market or fayre of usurers
    • And then mu?t many a man occupie as farre as his pur?e would reache, and ?tretche out his legges accordynge to the length of his couerlet.
  • (US) A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)
  • A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.
  • * , Episode 12, The Cyclops
    • It was a historic and a hefty battle when Myler and Percy were scheduled to don the gloves for the purse of fifty sovereigns.
  • (historical) A specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.

    • Synonyms

    * (small bag for carrying money) pocketbook; coin purse, change purse * (especially US) * (small bag used by women) handbag (especially UK) * (quantity of money) bursary, grant

    Derived terms

    * common purse * make a silk purse of a sow's ear * murse

    Related terms

    * bursa, bursar, bursary * reimburse

    See also

    * wallet

    Verb

    (purs)
  • To press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude.
  • * 1979 , (Monty Python), (Always Look on the Bright Side of Life)
    • When you're feeling in the dumps
    Don't be silly chumps
    Just purse your lips and whistle – that's the thing.
  • To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles; to pucker; to knit.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.
  • To put into a purse.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I will go and purse the ducats straight.
  • (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To steal purses; to rob.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • I'll purse : I'll bet at bowling alleys.

    Synonyms

    * pucker

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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 seize, as though with claws.
    • to clutch power
  • * Collier
    • A man may set the poles together in his head, and clutch the whole globe at one intellectual grasp.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Is this a dagger which I see before me ? / Come, let me clutch thee.
  • To grip or grasp tightly.
    • She clutched her purse tightly and walked nervously into the building.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Not that I have the power to clutch my hand.

    Noun

    (es)
  • The claw of a predatory animal or bird.
  • (by extension) A grip, especially one seen as rapacious or evil.
  • * Cowper
    • the clutch of poverty
  • * Carlyle
    • an expiring clutch at popularity
  • * Bishop Stillingfleet
    • I must have little care of myself, if I ever more come near the clutches of such a giant.
  • * 1919 ,
    • 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.
  • 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
    • 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.
  • (US) An important or critical situation.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
    • Synonyms
    * clutch bag (small handbag)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (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:
    • 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)
  • A brood of chickens or a sitting of eggs.
  • A group or bunch (of people or things).
  • * 2012 , The Economist, 22nd Sep., 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)
  • a (l) (device between engine and gearbox )
  • clutch pedal
    • trå in clutchen - step on the clutch

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l)

    References

    * ----