deathlock

noun6

1. •
   A certain wrestling move that traps the opponent's leg.
2. •
   Rigor mortis, or a physical grip that is similarly inflexible and unyielding.

   • "Don't believe the fellow who tells you to hold your shotgun in a deathlock-tight grip — so that it won't kick you. — 1936
3. •
   (figurative) A similarly tight hold on something nonphysical.

   • Efforts are also being directed against the international financial institutions that are holding underdeveloped countries in the deathlock debt grip. — 1996
4. •
   A close struggle between two opponents in which each tries to kill the other.

   • When close to the whale, in the very deathlock of the fight, he handled his unpitying lance coolly and offhandedly, as a whistling tinker his hammer. — 1851
5. •
   (figurative) A struggle to destroy a force or principle to which one is opposed, or between two mutually incompatible principles.

   • The struggle of Europe, coming, as well as past, is a final struggle of opposite principles; it is the deathlock between self-government and slavery. — 1852
6. •
   Synonym of death grip.