clung

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of cling.

   The toddler clung to her mother's leg in the crowded station.

   Mist clung to the valley floor long after sunrise.

   Note

   One form does double duty for cling: she clung on, and she had clung on, with no -ed ending in either slot. It usually comes with to or on, as in clung to her mother's leg or clung to the valley floor. The same past also serves cling's older meaning of drying up and withering, which is the link to the obsolete "shrunken" adjective.

2. 2
   adjectiveobsolete

   Shrunken and wasted away, as flesh or plant matter that has dried out or lost its substance.

   Like fruit left too long in the sun, drawn tight and shriveled.

   Famine had left the cattle clung and feeble by midwinter.

   The clung timber warped and split where the sun beat down on it.

   Note

   An adjective that has dropped out of use. A modern reader who meets clung cattle or clung timber will first try to read it as the past of holding on. It compares like any adjective, giving more clung and most clung, and it describes what has dried and shrunk rather than what grips. In new writing it suits only deliberately old-fashioned prose. Elsewhere, shriveled or wasted carries the meaning without the stumble.

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