Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A fastening, such as a hook or buckle, used to hold two or more objects or parts together.
  • noun An embrace or hug.
  • noun A grip or grasp of the hand.
  • noun A small metal bar or other device attached to the ribbon of a military decoration to indicate the action or service for which it was awarded or an additional award of the same medal.
  • transitive verb To fasten with or as if with a clasp.
  • transitive verb To hold in a tight embrace.
  • transitive verb To grip firmly in or with the hand; grasp.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the British army, a narrow flat bar of metal forming part of a military decoration, and bearing the name of some action at which the bearer was present.
  • To catch and hold by twining or embracing; surround and cling to, as a vine to a tree; embrace closely; inclose or encompass, as with the arms, hands, or fingers; grasp.
  • To shut or fasten together with or as with a clasp.
  • To cling.
  • To attach holdfasts of metal to the outer edges of (a book-cover) to prevent its yawning or warping.
  • noun A catch or hook used to hold together two things, or two parts of the same thing.
  • noun Specifically— A broad, flat hook or catch used to hold together the covers of a book.
  • noun A hook used to hold together two parts of a garment, or serve as an ornament: as, a cloak-clasp. See agraffe, brooch, fermail.
  • noun A small piece of tin or other metal passed through or around two objects, and bent over to fasten them together.
  • noun In spinning, an arrangement consisting of two horizontal beams, the upper pressed upon the lower one, or lifted for drawing out the thread.
  • noun A clinging or grasping, especially of the arms or hands; a close embrace.
  • noun In entomology, the claspers at the end of the male abdomen, designed for retaining the female.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An adjustable catch, bent plate, or hook, for holding together two objects or the parts of anything, as the ends of a belt, the covers of a book, etc.
  • noun A close embrace; a throwing of the arms around; a grasping, as with the hand.
  • noun a large knife, the blade of which folds or shuts into the handle.
  • noun a lock which closes or secures itself by means of a spring.
  • transitive verb To shut or fasten together with, or as with, a clasp; to shut or fasten (a clasp, or that which fastens with a clasp).
  • transitive verb To inclose and hold in the hand or with the arms; to grasp; to embrace.
  • transitive verb To surround and cling to; to entwine about.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fastener or holder, particularly one that clasps.
  • noun An embrace, a grasp, or handshake.
  • verb transitive To take hold of; to grasp; to grab tightly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb grasp firmly
  • noun the act of grasping
  • noun a fastener (as a buckle or hook) that is used to hold two things together
  • verb hold firmly and tightly
  • verb fasten with or as if with a brooch
  • verb fasten with a buckle or buckles

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English claspe, probably ultimately from Old English clyppan, to grasp, hold.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Noun dated in the 13th Century CE and verb dated in the late 14th Century CE; from claspe, possible modification of clapse, which is from Old English clyppan ("to grasp"). Related to enclasp ("embrace, hold tightly in one's arms").

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Examples

  • I knew Mr. Henry Drummond, and the memory of his strong, warm hand-clasp is like a benediction.

    The Story of My Life Annie Sullivan 1905

  • All products exceed 70 percent recycled content, and Alchemy Goods’ latest item, a bottle opener made from a seat belt clasp, is its first to achieve a 100 (fully recycled).

    ALCHEMY GOODS RECYCLED BAGS | Inhabitat 2007

  • A roughly two-foot piece of light rope is tied to the screw eye, and a clasp is attached to the opposite end.

    Uncategorized Blog Posts 2009

  • A roughly two-foot piece of light rope is tied to the screw eye, and a clasp is attached to the opposite end.

    The Magic Heeling Stick 2009

  • When you open it, on the back of the clasp is a tiny “7.”

    Here We Go Again Betty White 1995

  • A bracelet with a gold chain, the centre-piece of which is a fine opal surrounded with brilliants; the opal is oblong and mounted in the Gothic style; the clasp is an opal.

    Diamonds and Pearls 1969

  • But he recalled the clasp of her hot arms during an hour of rest in the jungle, when she had given him a woman's reward, freely and willingly, in a burst of Oriental passion that needed no torch to inflame his desires.

    Conan the Avenger Howard, Robert E. 1968

  • The new cape was to have a wonderful metal fastener called a clasp, and life ran like a silver stream the next two days as they sewed on the new-fangled garment.

    The Wind Before the Dawn Dell H. Munger

  • It consisted of a gold hoop, set with turquoise, and on the clasp was a beautiful bird, with open wings, all made of gold, and which quivered as Hulda carried it.

    The Junior Classics — Volume 6 Old-Fashioned Tales William Patten 1902

  • He could recall the clasp of her arms, the kiss that she had given him, the words that she had said.

    A Little Traitor to the South A War Time Comedy With a Tragic Interlude Cyrus Townsend Brady 1890

Comments

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  • "... the scarcely less famous Robert Meldrum came within a bar of carrying off the clasp (the top prize in piobaireachd playing) at the age of eighty at the Northern Meeting at Inverness."

    —William Donaldson, Pipers: A Guide to the Players and Music of the Highland Bagpipe (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2005), 13

    July 27, 2008

  • Though I waste watches framing words to fetter

    Some spirit to mine own in clasp and kiss,

    Out of the night there looms a sense ’twere better

    To fail obtaining whom one fails to miss.

    - Thomas Hardy, 'Revulsion'.

    September 18, 2009

  • Clasp, a portmanteau of clip and grasp.

    March 8, 2020