cling
pronunciation
How to pronounce cling in British English:
UK [klɪŋ]
How to pronounce cling in American English:
US [klɪŋ]
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- Noun:
- fruit (especially peach) whose flesh adheres strongly to the pit
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- Verb:
- come or be in close contact with; stick or hold together and resist separation
- to remain emotionally or intellectually attached
- hold on tightly or tenaciously
Word Origin
- cling
- cling: [OE] The basic underlying sense of cling seems to be ‘stick, adhere’, but surviving records of the word in Old English reveal it only in the more specialized senses ‘congeal’ or ‘shrivel’ (the notion being that loss of moisture causes something to contract upon itself or adhere more closely to a surface). It is not really until the late 13th century that the more familiar ‘adhere’ (as in ‘a wet shirt clinging to someone’s back’) begins to show itself, and no hint that ‘clinging’ is something a human being can do with his or her arms emerges before the early 17th century.The word goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *klingg-, whose variant *klengk- is the source of English clench [13] and clinch [16].=> clench, clinch
- cling (v.)
- Old English clingan "hold fast, adhere closely; congeal, shrivel" (strong verb, past tense clang, past participle clungen), from Proto-Germanic *klingg- (cognates: Danish klynge "to cluster;" Old High German klinga "narrow gorge;" Old Norse klengjask "press onward;" Danish klinke, Dutch klinken "to clench;" German Klinke "latch"). The main sense shifted in Middle English to "adhere to" (something else), "stick together." Of persons in embrace, c. 1600. Figuratively (to hopes, outmoded ideas, etc.), from 1580s. Of clothes from 1792. Related: Clung; clinging.
Example
- 1. Let one thing go if you often cling to things .
- 2. There will be those who seize this opportunity and those who cling to old-world models .
- 3. How can you rid yourself of what you cling to ?
- 4. All she had to cling to was her husband mark .
- 5. If kids feel safe , they don 't cling to their mothers , they play with their toys .