So, so many little details on this delicious word in the OED. It joined our language in the early 1500s and was deliberately invented to signify a sound which begins sharply, like a clap, but ends in multiple small sounds, like a waterfall.

• 4.004 and clash.
• 4.020 Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
• 4.033 and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth, clashed their shields,
• 5.143 armour clashed,
• 6.071 clashed the shafts against their shields.
• 9.011 as they clashed together when the last elf passed;
• 9.050 with many a clash