fasten down

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfæsən daʊn/

Verb

fasten down (third-person singular simple present fastens down, present participle fastening down, simple past and past participle fastened down)

1. To secure something so that it will not be moved away.
   • 2008, Michael Schumacher, Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, page 113:

     Ed Dennis couldn't specify when the Fitzgerald 's crew had begun replacing and fastening down the hatch covers, but other witnesses maintained that it wasn't at all uncommon for crews to fasten down only half of the hatch cover clamps, especially during the summer months, when the weather was good and there was no danger of encountering heavy seas.

   • 2015, George Peat, From Boys to Men, page 30:

     Everybody had to lash and fasten down anything that might get blown away or cause damage.

   • 2016, A Classic Guide to Making and Repairing Vintage Shoes and Boots:

     Pull up the left-hand corner in the same way, and fasten down with a tingle. Next pull up the right-hand corner, and again fasten down with a tingle.

2. (transitive) To force a firm answer (from someone); to pin down.
   • 1865 January, Henry James, “Miss Prescott's Azarian”, in The North American Review, volume 100, page 269:

     For this reason, it is often difficult to fasten down a story-teller to his premises, and then to confront him with his aberrations.

   • 1923, George Washington Ogden, “Chapter 2”, in The Baron of Diamond Tail:

     On this point of fidelity to nature the community was divided, some holding with Grimmitt that a white wolf had blue eyes, although none could be fastened down to the declaration that he ever had met one;