fastening down

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.
   • 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...2008, Michael Schumacher, Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, page 113
2. (transitive) To force a firm answer (from someone); to pin down.
   • For this reason, it is often difficult to fasten down a story-teller to his premises, and then to confront him with his aberrations.1865 January, Henry James, “Miss Prescott's Azarian”, in The North American Review, volume 100, page 269