Holding something tightly and desperately, often because you're afraid of losing it.
From Old English 'clyccan,' meaning to seize or grasp. The word has consistently meant tight, desperate holding since medieval times.
When someone is 'clutching at straws,' they're using a 400-year-old metaphor of desperate grasping—grasping at straw implies there's nothing else to hold onto, so you grab anything.
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