clutch

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To grasp and hold tightly.
• intransitive verb To seize; snatch.
• intransitive verb To attempt to grasp or seize.
• intransitive verb To engage or disengage a motor vehicle's clutch.
• noun A hand, claw, talon, or paw in the act of grasping.
• noun A tight grasp.
• noun Control or power.
• noun A device for gripping and holding.
• noun Any of various devices for engaging and disengaging two working parts of a shaft or of a shaft and a driving mechanism.
• noun The apparatus, such as a lever or pedal, that activates one of these devices.
• noun A tense, critical situation.
• noun A clutch bag.
• adjective Being or occurring in a tense or critical situation.
• adjective Tending to be successful in tense or critical situations.
• idiom (clutch) To search in desperation for a solution to a difficulty.
• noun The complete set of eggs produced or incubated at one time.
• noun A brood of chickens.
• noun A group; a bunch.
• transitive verb To hatch (chicks).

from The Century Dictionary.

• To grasp tightly or firmly; seize, clasp, or grip strongly: as, to clutch a dagger.
• To close tightly; clench.
• To fasten.
• To get; gain.
• Specifically To seize (a clutch of eggs); take from the clutch.
• To snatch, or endeavor to snatch; try to grasp or seize: with at.
• noun A grasp or hold; specifically, a strong grip upon anything.
• noun In machinery: A movable coupling or locking and unlocking contrivance, used for transmitting motion, or for disconnecting moving parts of machinery. See bayonet-clutch, friction-clutch, etc.
• noun The cross-head of a piston-rod.
• noun The paw, talon, or claw of a rapacious animal.
• noun Figuratively, the hand, as representing power; hence, power of disposal or control; mastery: chiefly in the plural: as, to fall into the clutches of an enemy.
• noun A hatch of eggs; the number of eggs incubated at any one time; in the case of the domestic hen, specifically, thirteen eggs.
• A dialectal variant of cluck.
• noun Nautical: A forked stanchion.
• noun The throat of a patent anchor.
• noun Oyster spawn.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To reach (at something) as if to grasp; to catch or snatch; -- often followed by at.
• intransitive verb to become too tense or frightened to perform properly; used sometimes with up.
• transitive verb To seize, clasp, or grip with the hand, hands, or claws; -- often figuratively.
• transitive verb To close tightly; to clinch.
• noun A gripe or clinching with, or as with, the fingers or claws; seizure; grasp.
• noun The hands, claws, or talons, in the act of grasping firmly; -- often figuratively, for power, rapacity, or cruelty.
• noun (Mach.) A device which is used for coupling shafting, etc., so as to transmit motion, and which may be disengaged at pleasure.
• noun Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.
• noun (Zoöl.) The nest complement of eggs of a bird.
• noun (Mach.) a clutch in which connection is made by means of bayonets attached to arms sliding on a feathered shaft. The bayonets slide through holes in a crosshead fastened on the shaft.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The pedal in a car that disengages power transmission.
• noun A small handbag or purse with no straps or handle.
• noun US An important or critical situation.