They did nothing as Americans were drowning and families were clinging to life on their rooftops.
You know how all these Alaskans are—clinging to their guns and religion and so forth.
He almost managed to blow it (Rev. Wright, the “clinging to their guns” comment) but managed to pull it out.
Those seemingly distinct blow-ups are actually part of a continuum: Wall Street is clinging to a model that no longer exists.
clinging to nuclear weapons in excess of our security needs does not make the United States safer.
Several cabin boys are seen, some clinging to the shrouds, some seated.
My voice had some effect upon her, for she grasped the stick to which she was clinging.
As we entered she dropped my hand, clinging convulsively to my dress.
Cecil is down from her dainty table, clinging to her father.
Her mother was an old woman, clinging with an old, stubborn fidelity to the little things of her past.
Old English clingan "hold fast, adhere closely; congeal, shrivel" (strong verb, past tense clang, past participle clungen), from Proto-Germanic *klingg- (cf. 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.
