Clench and Clinch
.To clench is to grasp firmly, as, “He clenched my arm firmly,” “He clenched his nerves bravely to endure the pain.” (Anglo-Saxon, be-clencan, to hold fast.)
To clinch is to make fast, to turn the point of a nail in order to make it fast. Hence, to clinch an argument. (Dutch, klinken, to rivet. Whence “clinker-built,” said of a ship whose planks overlap each other, and are riveted together.)
I gave him a clencher (should be “clincher”). I nailed him fast.
