Death grip

The walker held with a death grip to his stick lest he drop it down the hill.

Cunningham then declared […] that he was at Mr. Lyneall's, and saw Robinson snap his pistol, which did not go off; that he heard a voice from some one, saying fire! and also heard a shot, but did not know who fired; that Condron, the approver, afterwards told him he had no pistol, as he dropped it when he fired; that Condron could not help firing, as the gentleman who struggled with him held a death grip of the pistol he fired.

The mysterious bark, though rent and shattered, still held on with a death-grip to the bridge, and the starting and splinting timbers of the latter seemed to shrink and shriek with fear and agony.

You might define obstinacy as holding on to small ideas or unworthy aims with a death-grip.

Robert with a death grip on an English saddle.

Until that night, the dynasty of the Dark Earth had held the nation in a death grip of control.

I gently tore the bloodied piece of paper out from her death grip.

The death grip of the Umbrella Ant soldiers is so tenacious that the natives often use them to suture wounds.

The wolf held the chicken in a death grip until it stopped moving.

At the outset Mahmoud commanded Mehemet to withdraw his forces and to lay his grievances before his Sultan. He might as well have ordered the lion to loose his death-grip on the roe.