She was very much the outsider in this close-knit clan, despite twelve years as the titular mistress of the house.

The crew of the ship were a close-knit clan.

But he came from a broken up family, while she is the youngest of 13 children in what remains a verly close-knit clan.

We have always been a close-knit clan, and the house was our monument to ourselves, a shrine to loyalty and love and good hard work.

They were clearly some kind of tight close-knit clan and half of him wanted out and the other half needed to be in.

The Lionnis were a close-knit clan of modest means, proper Dutch burghers, but shot through with culture.

While some of them act through close-knit criminal clans, others seem to be freelancers.

Slowly the secret spread through a wider circle, though the Snorings (who were a very close-knit clan) managed to keep it inside the family.

"It was like we had a close-knit, impenetrable clan," recalls George Martin, the longtime defensive end who retired in 1988.

In a nation of small, scattered family units, the idea of belonging to a close-knit clan that always sticks together has great appeal.