death grip

[ deth grip ]

noun

1. a very tight grip caused by fear or panic, as if facing death (often used facetiously):

   Scared out of my wits, and with a death grip on the motorbike's handlebars, I swore never again to ride on wet pavement.

   You don’t need to have such a death grip on the bat while waiting for the pitch, you know.

2. a very tight grip on someone, as to strangle or completely overpower them:

   As he knelt, the attacker took him from behind in a death grip, one hand clamped down firmly on his head, the other like a vise around his chest.

3. tyrannical or unrelenting control:

   Debt has a death grip on so many people's lives.

   These few media giants have had a death grip on the industry for the past decade.

4. Slang: Vulgar. a very tight grip on the penis when masturbating.

Word History and Origins

Origin of death grip¹

First recorded in 1730–40; 2010–15 death grip fordef 4

Example Sentences

If he had grabbed my officer, it would have been a death grip.

From The Daily Beast

“I put the Vulcan death grip on my leather steering wheel,” he says.

From The Daily Beast

Until then the United States was either a marginal power, before 1941, or locked in a death grip with the Soviet Union.

From The Daily Beast

That's the only way they'll relax the death grip they have on this country long enough to let us save ourselves and them.

From The Daily Beast

His fingers loosened their death grip on the arms of the chair.

From The Daily Beast

She laughed when she remembered her ghastly fear of the White Lady's death-grip!

From Project Gutenberg

Then Slavin slipped, and Hampton succeeded in wriggling partially free from his death-grip.

From Project Gutenberg

She clung to each of these articles with a death grip, evidently fearful that someone might try to steal them.

From Project Gutenberg

Lying in a little depression between two spreading roots of the spruce were the bodies of two men locked in a death-grip.

From Project Gutenberg

Russ sat bolt upright, holding his breath, his teeth clenched with death grip upon the pipe-stem.

From Project Gutenberg