fasten on

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Hunger,” “Shame” and “12 Years a Slave” fasten on suffering — physical and psychological, self-induced and inflicted by oppressors — less as a source of empathy than as a means to the truth.

From New York Times • Nov. 15, 2018

With Islamic State’s territorial base in Syria and Iraq nearly eliminated, terrorism analysts fear Islamist militants fleeing the Middle East could fasten on crises such as those in Myanmar as their next base of operations.

From Washington Times • Jan. 8, 2018

Depressive graduate students, loaded with debt and fretful about diminished job prospects, fasten on to the futility running through the plays.

From Los Angeles Times • May 3, 2016

One of the traits of popular collective memory is that it likes to fasten on landmark moments when everything was transformed and after which nothing was ever the same.

From The Guardian • Jul. 6, 2012

Another, which Rontu had chewed off, lay wriggling at the edge of the water, as if it were looking for something to fasten on to.

From "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell