cling to

Related to cling to: reassert, outlined, call on, ameliorative, scrutinised, overhyped, took over

cling to (someone or something)

1. Literally, to hold on to someone or something tightly. The little girl clung to her dad's legs and cried as he tried to leave for work. I clung to the side of the rock and prayed that a search party would find me.
2. By extension, to remain devoted to or entrenched in something, often a belief or opinion. In this ever-changing world, you can't just stubbornly cling to your old beliefs.
See also: cling
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

cling to someone or something

 
1. Lit. to hold on tight to someone or something. The child clung tightly to his mother. As she drifted in the sea, she clung to a floating log.
2. Fig. to hold onto the thought or memory of someone or something; to have a strong emotional attachment to or dependence on someone or something. Her immigrant parents clung to the old ways. Harold clung to the memory of his grandmother.
See also: cling
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • cling to (someone or something)
  • cling on (to someone or something)
  • gallop through
  • gallop through (something)
  • galloping
  • ray of hope
  • glimmer
  • glimmer of hope
  • glance down
  • glance down at (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
In general, the more stable the position of a unit equilateral triangle is, the closer it will cling to other triangles and therefore the higher the space utilization will be.
A new quasi-human algorithm for solving the packing problem of unit equilateral triangles
Like that neaniskos, and like all of us, he was stripped of his old clothes, buried with Christ by baptism into his death, and dressed in a new, white garment in which he, and we, might testify that we cling to the promise of a different life, a new life, a life that for now is hid with Christ in God.
Sermon at the funeral of David G. Truemper 1939-2004
The winners will be you and those companies that don't cling to the past.
The future of telecommunications. (Technology)
Parker's powers include great strength, an ESP-like "spider sense," the ability to cling to any surface, and to swing from building to building using spider-web strands.
Spider-Man
Raymo explores the reasons why so many of us cling to antique cosmologies or fall prey to pseudoscientific scams, concluding that much of our desire for transcendence is rooted in the fear of death.
Skeptics and True Believers: The Exhilarating Connection Between Science and Religion
Sunlight filters through shallow water, dappling tiny blades of brown algae that cling to the soft seafloor.
Multicellular fossils may be the world's oldest
Midway and the Battle of the Atlantic showed how quickly entirely new ways of waging naval war - aircraft carriers, submarines - could rise, threatening the supremacy of nations whose old salts cling to old ways.
The Price of Admiralty
Fearful people tend to cling to things for fear of losing them.
thought for the day
They cling to power instead of sharing it; they cling to knowledge instead of sharing it; they cling to friends instead of sharing them.
THOUGHT for the DAY
Yet managers, seeing a completely different game to the rest of us, cling to it like George Best clings to opening time.
Len Capeling: Steve McClaren