as in clenches
to close or secure (something, such as a door) with a latch
latch the gate
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Recent Examples of latches
Typically said when someone copies a trend, latches onto a friend's obsession, or just teases in a playful way.
—
Annabelle Canela, Parents, 5 Sep. 2025
That against-the-odds spirit is what the documentary crew latches onto as the thread tying their story together.
—Andy Meek, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Annabelle Canela, Parents, 5 Sep. 2025
That against-the-odds spirit is what the documentary crew latches onto as the thread tying their story together.
—Andy Meek, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for latches
Verb
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When the sky darkens, her stomach clenches.—
Alaa Elassar,
CNN Money,
1 Oct. 2025
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In a similar way, a man who is defiant stiffens his neck, squares his shoulders, lowers his brows, and clenches his fists with his knuckles forward.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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In coffee shops downtown, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights provides an emergency hotline for those who witness ICE activity, and hangs information sheets from coffee machines.—
Adam Crafton,
New York Times,
3 Nov. 2025
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Step onto the porch in an oversize T-shirt that hangs down to my knees and mismatched socks that come halfway up my calves.—
Bailey Richards,
PEOPLE,
30 Oct. 2025
Verb
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More than a century on, that mark ties him to Dan Ballard and the Sunderland-Arsenal Premier League match at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.—
Michael Walker,
New York Times,
10 Nov. 2025
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In the final act, Baramulla ties all its threads together.—
Isadora Wandermurem,
Time,
8 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The winner of this game clinches a share of the league championship.—
Michael Huntley,
Oc Register,
23 Oct. 2025
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The win clinches the team’s berth in the World Series, but its opponent has not been decided.—
Phil Helsel,
NBC news,
18 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The sequencer pastes together the strings and the quality scores, along with some other metadata, read by read, to form what is called a FASTQ file.—
Dmitri Pavlichin,
IEEE Spectrum,
22 Aug. 2018
Verb
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This is an adjustable graphics-card brace, and its screw tightens the part that clamps it to the slide.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
21 Oct. 2025
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Here, Lloyd clamps a muzzle — part fetish club, part Bane — over Lucky’s mouth while Pozzo pushes him in a wheelchair (the actor, Michael Patrick Thornton, uses a chair).—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
29 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Parsley is a biennial that quickly bolts and dies the second year, and since second-year parsley is bitter, it’s typically grown as an annual.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
14 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Plasma bends the rules To build the lens, scientists sent strong electrical pulses through hydrogen gas inside a narrow capillary tube.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Nov. 2025
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From galaxy rotation curves that defy Newton's laws to gravitational lensing that bends light in eerie ways, scientists have been piecing together clues about dark matter like interstellar sleuths.—
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry,
Space.com,
4 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Latches.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/latches. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.
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