clamp

[ klamp ]

/ klæmp /

noun

a device, usually of some rigid material, for strengthening or supporting objects or fastening them together.

an appliance with opposite sides or parts that may be adjusted or brought closer together to hold or compress something.

one of a pair of movable pieces, made of lead or other soft material, for covering the jaws of a vise and enabling it to grasp without bruising.

Also called clamp rail. Carpentry. a rail having a groove or a number of mortises for receiving the ends of a number of boards to bind them into a flat piece, as a drawing board or door.

Nautical.

a horizontal timber in a wooden hull, secured to ribs to support deck beams and to provide longitudinal strength.
mast clamp.

verb (used with object)

to fasten with or fix in a clamp.

Verb Phrases

clamp down, to become more strict: There were too many tax loopholes, so the government clamped down.

clamp down on, to impose or increase controls on.

Origin of clamp

1350–1400; Middle English (noun) < Middle Dutch clampe clamp, cleat; cognate with Middle Low German klampe

SYNONYMS FOR clamp

6. clinch, clench, secure.

Related formsun·clamped, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for clamp-down

clamp

/ (klæmp) /

noun

a mechanical device with movable jaws with which an object can be secured to a bench or with which two objects may be secured together

verb (tr)

to fix or fasten with or as if with a clamp

to immobilize (a car) by means of a wheel clamp

to inflict or impose forcefullythey clamped a curfew on the town

Word Origin for clamp

C14: from Dutch or Low German klamp; related to Old English clamm bond, fetter, Old Norse kleppr lump

clamp

/ (klæmp) British agriculture /

noun

a mound formed out of a harvested root crop, covered with straw and earth to protect it from winter weather

a pile of bricks ready for processing in a furnace

verb

(tr) to enclose (a harvested root crop) in a mound

Word Origin for clamp

C16: from Middle Dutch klamp heap; related to clump

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for clamp-down

clamp-down

also clampdown, 1940 in the figurative sense, from verbal phrase clamp down "use pressure to keep down" (1924). The verbal phrase in the figurative sense is recorded from 1941. See clamp (v.) + down (adv.).

clamp

device for fastening, c.1300, probably from clamb, perhaps originally past tense of climb (v.), or from Middle Dutch clampe (Dutch klamp), from West Germanic *klamp- "clamp, cleat;" cf. Middle Low German klampe "clasp, hook," Old High German klampfer "clip, clamp;" also probably related to Middle Dutch klamme "a clamp, hook, grapple," Danish klamme "a clamp, cramp," Old English clamm "fetter;" see clam (n.).

clamp

"to fasten with a clamp," 1670s, from clamp (n.). Related: Clamped; clamping.

Medicine definitions for clamp-down

clamp

[ klămp ]

n.

An instrument for the compression or grasping of a structure.

clamp

noun

verb (used with object)

Verb Phrases

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Nearby words

Origin of clamp

clamp

noun

verb (tr)

Word Origin for clamp

clamp

noun

verb

Word Origin for clamp

clamp-down

clamp

clamp

clamp

n.