clinging
Also found in: Thesaurus, Idioms, Wikipedia.
cling
(klĭng)intr.v. clung (klŭng), cling·ing, clings
1. To hold fast or adhere to something, as by grasping, sticking, embracing, or entwining: clung to the rope to keep from falling; fabrics that cling to the body.
2. To remain close; resist separation: We clung together in the storm.
3. To remain emotionally attached; hold on: clinging to outdated customs.
n.
A clingstone fruit.
[Middle English clingen, from Old English clingan.]
cling′er n.
cling′y adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Clinging
See Also: PERSISTENCE; PEOPLE, INTERACTION; RELATIONSHIPS
- Adhere like lint —Anon
- Adhere like ticks to a sheep’s back —Maurice Hewlett
- Adhering … like shipwrecked mariners on a rock —J. M. Barrie
- Clinging … like lichen to a rock —Ross Macdonald
- Clinging like a limpet in the heaviest sea —William H. Hallhan
- Clinging … like a monkey-on-a-stick —Julia O’Faolain
- Clinging … stupidly, like a mule —Joseph Conrad
- Clinging to her like chewing gum to a boot sole —Julian Gloag
- Cling..like a wart —Tony Ardizzone
The simile, as used in The Heart of the Order, describes the way a cowboy clings to the back of a bull.
- Cling like chewing gum to a shoe sole —Anon
- Cling like ivy —Robert Burton
- Clings fiercely to all his titles, like an old soldier to his medals —Robert Traver
- Clings to as a baby clings to its pacifier —Anon
- Clings to me like a bed-bug —Maxim Gorky
- Cling to (as to another person) as an exhausted man does to a rock —Brooks Bakeland
- Cling to … like a drowning person to a piece of timber —Isak Dinesen
- Cling to like a leech —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
- Cling to like a vine —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
A variation is to “Cling like ivy.”
- Cling to … like tenacious barnacles upon rocks —Mary Ellen Chase
- Clung like a basket enfolding a tithe offering —Arthur A. Cohen
- Clung [to an idea] like a shipwrecked sailor hanging on to the only solid part of his sinking universe —Marguerite Yourcenar
- (The baby) clung like a sloth —Louise Erdrich
- Clung … like a tarantula —Terry Southern
- (Rancour) clung like curses on them —Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Clung … like magnet to steel —T. Buchanan Read
- Clung the way a tree animal clings to a branch —Rachel Ingalls
- Clung to each other like double sweet peas —A Broken-Hearted Gardner, anonymous 19th century verse
- Clung together hand in hand like men overboard —George Garrett
- Clung to her like a man on a swaying subway car whose grip on the overhead rail keeps him from tumbling to the floor —Paul Reidinger
- Clung to his consciousness like a membrane —John Updike
- Clutched [at her blanket] as a faller clutches at the turf on the edge of a cliff —Virginia Woolf
- Clutching hold of … with the grasp of a drowning man —Charles Dickens
- Clutching is the surest way to murder love, as if it were a kitten, not to be squeezed so hard, or a flower to fade in a tight hand —May Sarton
- (There she sat,) glued to the tube like a postage stamp —A. Alvarez
- Gummed together like wet leaves —Lawrence Durrell
- [A term to describe a problem] had stuck with him like day-old oatmeal —T. Glen Coughlin
- Hang on like a summer cold —Anon
- Hang on … like a tick —Rita Mae Brown
- Hang on to … [some small, unimportant point] … like a dog to a bone —Barbara Greene, on her cousin Graham Greene
Some people like to get more specific; for example, “Hang on to … like a terrier” found in Iris Murdoch’s novel, The Good Apprentice.
- Hang over like a heavy curtain —Anon
- Hang over like a layer of smog —Anon
- Hang over like crepe —Anon
- Hang over like murder on a guilty soul —Sciller
- Hang together like burrs —John Ray’s Proverbs
- Hung like bees on mountain-flowers —Percy Bysshe Shelley
- (The thought … ) hung like incense around Francis —Dorothy Canfield Fisher
- It [something that had been said] stuck up in the girl’s consciousness like a fallen meteor —John Cheever
- (A scar of horror, if not of guilt,) lay consciously on his breast, like the scarlet letter —George Santayana
- Clinging … like starving children to a teat —Margaret Millar
- Like swarming bees they clung —Lord Byron
- Remained like a black cloud —Frank Swinnerton
- She clings to me like a fly to honey —Anton Chekhov
- She clung to him like a shadow —Margaret Mitchell
- She’s coiled around her family and her house like a python —Jane Bowles
- She was like a sea-anemone —had only to be touched to adhere to what touched her —John Fowles
- Sticking to [another person’s side] like a melting snowbank —Marge Piercy
- Stick like a wet leaf —Anton Chekhov
- Sticks like a burr to a cow’s tail —Edward Noyes Westcott
- Sticks like crazy glue —Anon
- (My touch) sticks like mud —Marge Piercy
- Stick together like overcooked pasta —Elyse Sommer
- Stick together like peanut butter and jelly —Ed McBain
- Sticky as fire —Terry Bisson
- Sticky as rubber cement —Anon
- Stuck … like a barnacle to a ship’s keel, or a snail to a door, or a little bunch of toadstools to the stem of a tree —Charles Dickens
- Stuck to [him or her] like shit to a blanket —American colloquialism
- Stuck to my side like a lung infected with pleurisy —Patrick White
- Stuck with … like gas on water —Will Weaver
- Tenacious as a Boston bull —Anon
- They [people who cling to outmoded political concepts] are like degenerates who are color blind, except that they see something which is NOT there, instead of failing to see something which is —Janet Flanner
- They [narrator’s daughters] cling together like Hansel and Gretel —Ogden Nash
- Tied to each other back to back [long-married people] … like dogs unable to disengage after coupling —Lawrence Durrell
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Switch to new thesaurus
clinging
adjectiveThe American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
clinging
adj garment → sich anschmiegend; smell → lange haftend, hartnäckig; she’s the clinging sort → sie ist wie eine Klette (inf)
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007