CLING TO

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cling to mean? 

• CLING TO (verb)
  The verb CLING TO has 1 sense:

1. hold firmly, usually with one's hands

  Familiarity information: CLING TO used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLING TO (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hold firmly, usually with one's hands

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

cling to; clutch; hold close; hold tight

Context example:

She clutched my arm when she got scared

Hypernyms (to "cling to" is one way to...):

hold; take hold (have or hold in one's hands or grip)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cling to"):

cuddle; draw close; nest; nestle; nuzzle; snuggle (move or arrange oneself in a comfortable and cozy position)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

Martin felt his shirt press and cling to his shoulders, what of the sweat of the effort.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

How did I cling to their dear forms, as sometimes they haunted even my waking hours, and persuade myself that they still lived!

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Yet it were madness to spring for that narrow slit with nought but the wet, smooth rock to cling to.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Fanny's friendship was all that he had to cling to.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He slipped through it, and when I tried to cling to Him, He raised me up and flung me down.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Aye, Emily, beautiful and drooping, cling to him with the utmost trust of thy bruised heart; for he has clung to thee, with all the might of his great love!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By all their calculations there was just time for this; but as they drew near the Cobb, there was such a general wish to walk along it once more, all were so inclined, and Louisa soon grew so determined, that the difference of a quarter of an hour, it was found, would be no difference at all; so with all the kind leave-taking, and all the kind interchange of invitations and promises which may be imagined, they parted from Captain and Mrs Harville at their own door, and still accompanied by Captain Benwick, who seemed to cling to them to the last, proceeded to make the proper adieus to the Cobb.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

This is the sort of shelf on which young wives and mothers may consent to be laid, safe from the restless fret and fever of the world, finding loyal lovers in the little sons and daughters who cling to them, undaunted by sorrow, poverty, or age, walking side by side, through fair and stormy weather, with a faithful friend, who is, in the true sense of the good old Saxon word, the 'house-band', and learning, as Meg learned, that a woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor the art of ruling it not as a queen, but as a wise wife and mother.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

They knew that the time a man could cling to a slippery rock in the face of that driving current was a matter of minutes, and they ran as fast as they could up the bank to a point far above where Thornton was hanging on.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Something of his birthplace seemed to cling to the man, and I never looked at his pale, keen face or the poise of his head without associating him with grey archways and mullioned windows and all the venerable wreckage of a feudal keep.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)