cling to

1. 1.

   hold firmly, usually with one's hands

   “She clutched my arm when she got scared”

   Synonymshold closehold tightclutch

   Broaderhold

   Narrowercuddle

Questions about cling to

What does cling to mean?

cling to means "hold firmly, usually with one's hands".

What is another word for cling to?

Close synonyms include hold close, hold tight, clutch. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cling to a common word?

cling to is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.