death grip

noun

1
: an extremely tight grip caused especially by fear
2
: hold sense 3b
maintained their death grip on overseas markets

Examples of death grip in a Sentence

He drove straight through the storm, never loosening his death grip on the steering wheel. the cult leader had such a death grip on his followers that all orders were carried out without the slightest objection
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Smash the party’s death grip on the court and vote for Wendy Li. New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 25 June 2024 And Arab regimes have not, in fact, established a death grip on public mobilization. Marc Lynch, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2024 This rebalancing also means a headset with roughly the same weight as the Quest 2 can sit securely on your face without the need to tighten the head strap in a death grip around your skull, leading to noticeably less pressure on the area around your eyes and sinuses. Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 13 Oct. 2023 Such talk is music to the ears of Believe’s 52-year-old CEO Denis Ladegaillerie, who co-founded the business in 2005, when technology had the music industry in a death grip that sent global sales of recorded music from a peak of more than $24 billion in 1999 to a bottom of $14 billion in 2014. Ariel Shapiro, Forbes, 27 Sep. 2021 See all Example Sentences for death grip 

Word History

First Known Use

1792, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of death grip was in 1792

Dictionary Entries Near death grip

Cite this Entry

“Death grip.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/death%20grip. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!