1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Clamping, in Joinery, &c. when a piece of Board is fitted with the Grain to the End of another piece of Board cross the Grain; the first Board is said to be clamp'd. Thus the Ends of Tables are commonly clamp'd, to preserve them from warping.

c1860 H. Stuart Novices or Young Seaman's Catech. (rev. ed.) 75 A quarter-iron that opens with a hinge to allow the topmast studding-sail booms to be raised or lowered (called clamping).

1881 Times 28 Jan. 3/6 It was officially remarked of this gun—‘Elevating and traversing gear very good; clamping also good’.

1886 All Year Round Dec. 499 [Cotton manufacture] The operation of clamping, or stretching the cloth to its proper width evenly throughout its whole length.

1944 J. W. Sherwin in Mass. Inst. Techn., Radiation Lab., Rep. 572 (title) Clamping tubes.

1947 D. G. Fink Radar Engin. xi. 574 A clamping circuit of two triode tubes is connected conductively to the grid of each deflection amplifier tube. The clamping tubes are connected in series.

1947 L. J. Haworth in L. N. Ridenour Radar System Engin. xiii. 504 During each positive excursion of A the resistance extracts a small charge, which is replaced by the diode on the negative excursion. The clamping can be done at the positive extreme by reversing the diode.

1961 G. Millerson Technique Television Production iii. 50 Electronic clamping circuits reduce the wide variation in picture tones that an unsteady datum produces.

1962 J. H. Simpson & R. S. Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors xvi. 389 Clamping may be defined quite generally as the stabilization of the output voltage or current of a transistor switch by a sudden change of impedance, produced by an additional circuit device at one of the transistor electrodes.