Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Clamp

Clamp (klămp), n. [Cf. LG. & D. klamp, Dan. klampe, also D. klampen to fasten, clasp. Cf. Clamber, Cramp.] 1. Something rigid that holds fast or binds things together; a piece of wood or metal, used to hold two or more pieces together.

2. (a) An instrument with a screw or screws by which work is held in its place or two parts are temporarily held together. (b) (Joinery) A piece of wood placed across another, or inserted into another, to bind or strengthen.

3. One of a pair of movable pieces of lead, or other soft material, to cover the jaws of a vise and enable it to grasp without bruising.

4. (Shipbuilding) A thick plank on the inner part of a ship's side, used to sustain the ends of beams.

5. A mass of bricks heaped up to be burned; or of ore for roasting, or of coal for coking.

6. A mollusk. See Clam. [Obs.]

Clamp nails, nails used to fasten on clamps in ships.

Clamp (klămp), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Clamped (klămt; 215) p. pr. & vb. n. Clamping.] 1. To fasten with a clamp or clamps; to apply a clamp to; to place in a clamp.

2. To cover, as vegetables, with earth. [Eng.]

Clamp, n. [Prob. an imitative word. Cf. Clank.] A heavy footstep; a tramp.

Clamp, v. i. To tread heavily or clumsily; to clump.

The policeman with clamping feet. Thackeray.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.