What's the difference between clutch and seize?

Clutch


Definition:

  • (n.) A gripe or clinching with, or as with, the fingers or claws; seizure; grasp.
  • (n.) The hands, claws, or talons, in the act of grasping firmly; -- often figuratively, for power, rapacity, or cruelty; as, to fall into the clutches of an adversary.
  • (n.) A device which is used for coupling shafting, etc., so as to transmit motion, and which may be disengaged at pleasure.
  • (n.) Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.
  • (n.) The nest complement of eggs of a bird.
  • (n.) To seize, clasp, or gripe with the hand, hands, or claws; -- often figuratively; as, to clutch power.
  • (n.) To close tightly; to clinch.
  • (v. i.) To reach (at something) as if to grasp; to catch or snatch; -- often followed by at.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Damn that Beltran, what a clutch postseason performer.
  • (2) When Guillem was approached by French Vogue to be photographed seven years ago she was presented with a clutch of the world's best fashion photographers to choose from.
  • (3) "I have just seen a piece of straw flying over, which the hon lady is attempting to clutch at!"
  • (4) An average of 241,273 viewers gathered round the television (hospital bed) clutching the remote (bag of grapes) staring at the small screen (out of the window).
  • (5) Expecting defeat, but somehow clutching on to hope … Well, Frank [Skinner] and David [Baddiel] wrote that part of the lyrics, but the reason I got them in after the FA asked me to write a song was that I thought it was only worth making if it reflected how it feels to be a football fan.
  • (6) On arriving in Cyprus, Mike was the only person present to celebrate leaving the clutches of Egypt’s national airline.
  • (7) I’ve known them for over 10 years,” said Eugene Ward, 43, clutching a bag of water bottles and beer cans.
  • (8) Aston Villa goalkeeper intercepts and clutches the ball to his chest.
  • (9) Despite the absence of a comprehensive deal, a clutch of local agreements have been reached, the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) said in a report last June.
  • (10) We have rescued 26 children from the clutches of human traffickers in the past 20 days and sent them to rehabilitation centres,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a senior labour official in Bihar’s East Champaran district.
  • (11) When I flew to Salisbury shortly afterwards, the man in the next seat was clutching a thick polythene bag full of small metal objects.
  • (12) Wearing a white dress, black jacket and patent leather sandals, and clutching her mobile phone and keys, she could be on her way to an office in one of the capital's new skyscrapers, instead of walking past a patchwork of bean and sweet potato fields en route to the village's tin-roofed administration offices.
  • (13) Pilgrims from all over the world, many weeping and clutching precious mementos or photographs of loved ones, jostle beneath its soaring domes every day.
  • (14) With Ward-Prowse and Jay Rodriguez still missing, Koeman is reliant on a small clutch of attackers including Dusan Tadic, Sadio Mané, Shane Long, Steven Davis and Graziano Pellè.
  • (15) On return to their nests, the birds immediately resumed incubation and laid a second clutch of eggs after 5 days at which time the first clutch was removed.
  • (16) In his attempt to justify the unjustifiable, Mr Grieve has clutched at a fragile constitutional doctrine and adopted a deeply dubious legal course.
  • (17) A practical preventive measure would be to encourage manufacturers to equip machines with remotely located spring-opening clutches.
  • (18) But I am trying to claw the innocent joy of Halloween out of the cold, deadened clutches of the Zombie of Forced Sexiness.
  • (19) To describe this course of action as "clutching at straws" is to flatter it.
  • (20) Shara Proctor, who might have had hopes of gold while Okagbare busied herself with the 200m, managed only two steps of a run-up before clutching at her left thigh and leaving the arena with her hoodie pulled sorrowfully around her face.

Seize


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To fall or rush upon suddenly and lay hold of; to gripe or grasp suddenly; to reach and grasp.
  • (v. t.) To take possession of by force.
  • (v. t.) To invade suddenly; to take sudden hold of; to come upon suddenly; as, a fever seizes a patient.
  • (v. t.) To take possession of by virtue of a warrant or other legal authority; as, the sheriff seized the debtor's goods.
  • (v. t.) To fasten; to fix.
  • (v. t.) To grap with the mind; to comprehend fully and distinctly; as, to seize an idea.
  • (v. t.) To bind or fasten together with a lashing of small stuff, as yarn or marline; as, to seize ropes.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Batson believes there is a “mood” that needs to be seized upon.
  • (2) George Osborne said the 146,000 fall in joblessness marked "another step on the road to full employment" but Labour and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) seized on news that earnings were failing to keep pace with prices.
  • (3) Can somebody who is not a billionaire, who stands for working families, actually win an election into which billionaires are pouring millions of dollars?” Naming prominent and controversial rightwing donors, he said: “It is not just Hillary, it is the Koch brothers, it is Sheldon Adelson.” Stephanopoulos seized the moment, asking: “Are you lumping her in with them?” Choosing to refer to the 2010 supreme court decision that removed limits on corporate political donations, rather than address the question directly, Sanders replied: “What I am saying is that I get very frightened about the future of American democracy when this becomes a battle between billionaires.
  • (4) Among the dead were two young young officers, Major Mujahid Ali and Captain Usman, whose life stories the media seized upon, helped by the military's public relations machine.
  • (5) Remember, if he did seize group power and dispose of the Independent , he'd still be boss of the rest of INM: 200 or so papers and magazines around the world, dominant voices in Australasia, South Africa, India and Ireland itself, 100 million readers a week.
  • (6) Lieberman said: "[Amazon's] decision to cut off WikiLeaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material.
  • (7) Generals who have mutinied have seized the capital of South Sudan's largest state, Jonglei, and its main oil-producing area, Unity State.
  • (8) The coroner also raised concerns that although the aim of the operation in which Duggan was killed was to take guns off the streets, little attempt was made to seize weapons believed to be held by Hutchinson-Foster.
  • (9) Employers seize the workers’ passports and the only body that can issue a permit for a worker to leave Qatar is the employer himself.
  • (10) Backlogs and staff shortages have long been seized upon by veterans groups lobbying for more resources, but it is the apparent cover-up of the scale of the problem that has transformed these latest complaints into a growing political problem for the White House.
  • (11) Social media has seized on the story, turning the Eastern Washington University’s professor of African studies into a figure vilified and mocked for cultural appropriation in the midst of fraught debates over transgender identity and police shootings of black people.
  • (12) A Yazidi lawmaker, a Kurdish security official and an Iraqi official from the nearby city of Sinjar gave similar accounts, saying Isis fighters had massacred scores of Yazidi men on Friday afternoon after seizing Kocho.
  • (13) "This is a formidable challenge, requiring step changes in the rate at which we improve our energy efficiency and in low-carbon innovation.The Carbon Trust's proposals recognise the need for us to be smarter in focusing our investments, including to help businesses seize the economic opportunities of the transition."
  • (14) The US and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since 1979, when a group of student protesters seized the US embassy in Tehran and took US officials hostage.
  • (15) The militants have also seized a huge chunk of territory straddling the Iraq-Syria border, and have declared a self-styled caliphate in the territory they control.
  • (16) But the Tories edited out a crucial final sentence in which Balls told BBC Radio Leeds on 9 January : “But I think we can be tougher and we should be and we will.” Labour seized on the Tory editing of the Balls interview to accuse the Tories of misleading people to defend their refusal to tackle tax avoidance.
  • (17) The Ukrainian president, Oleksandr Turchynov, had given pro-Russian locals in eastern Ukraine until Monday morning to give up their arms and the buildings they had seized, but instead a pro-Russian mob took over yet another government building in Horlivka that day.
  • (18) The terrorists know that if Iraq and Afghanistan survive their assault, come through their travails, seize the opportunity the future offers, then those countries will stand not just as nations liberated from oppression, but as a lesson to humankind everywhere and a profound antidote to the poison of religious extremism.
  • (19) In 2014, they seized on Osborne’s declaration of a “northern powerhouse” to promote One North, a plan for a £15bn network, dubbed HS3, between Lancashire and Yorkshire.
  • (20) The president’s supporters seized on the incident to plant seeds of confusion and false equivalency: if that Russia story was wrong, perhaps all of them are wrong?