clasp

Noun dated ca. 1300 and verb dated ca. 1400; from Middle English claspe (“metal catch or hook used to hold things together”), possible metathesis of clapse, which comes from or related to Old English clyppan (“clasp”) (also see clip (verb)). Related to English enclasp (“embrace, hold tightly in one's arms”).^[1]

• (General American) IPA^(key): /klæsp/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /klɑːsp/
• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA^(key): /klasp/
• Rhymes: -æsp, -ɑːsp

• Audio (US):

  (file)

clasp (plural clasps)

1. (countable) A device with interlocking parts used for fastening things together, such as a fastener or a holder.

   I always have a hard time working the clasp on this necklace!

2. (countable) A bar or insignia on a medal ribbon, to either indicate an additional award of the medal, or the action or service for which it was awarded.
3. (uncountable) An embrace, a grasp, or handshake.

   He took her hand in a firm clasp.

   • 1849 March 31, Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 40:

     How few! yet how they creep / Through my fingers to the deep, / While I weep—while I weep! / O God! can I not grasp / Them with a tighter clasp?

clasp (third-person singular simple present clasps, present participle clasping, simple past and past participle clasped)

1. (transitive) To take hold of; to grasp.

   They clasped hands and parted as friends.

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit:

     And when the Boy dropped off to sleep, the Rabbit would snuggle down close under his little warm chin and dream, with the Boy's hands clasped close round him all night long.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

     The poor dear lady shivered, and I could see the tension of her nerves as she clasped her husband closer to her and bent her head lower and lower still on his breast.

2. (transitive) To shut or fasten together with, or as if with, a clasp.
3. (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To cling.

• beclasp (dated)
• (grasp tightly): begrip, grasp, grip; See also Thesaurus:grasp
• (shut with a clasp):
• (shut as if with a clasp): attach, join, put together; see also Thesaurus:join

• enclasp

• “clasp, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “clasp” in Collins English Dictionary, 12th edition, Glasgow: Collins, 2014, →ISBN; reproduced on TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.
• “clasp, n.”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• “clasp, v.”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “clasp, v.”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• calps, claps, scalp