Clench/clasp something in your fist?

Question

You take something in your hand (e.g. a cross) and then wrap your fingers around it. In other words, you hold the object in your fist. What would be the best way to describe that (in US English)?

• You clench the cross in your fist.
• You clasp the cross in your fist.
• Or something entirely different?

I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Edit: One user asked for more context. Although I am actually looking for a word that would work in all scenarios, I was thinking about a religious person, who clenches (clasps? grasps?) a cross whenever (s)he prays.

Answer 1

There's quite a few English words beginning with /kl/ that will work here.
It turns out that kl- is the assonance (initial cluster) that tends to mean 'together'.

51% (43 of 84) of the English simplex words beginning with that cluster (mostly spelled 'CL' instead of 'KL') refer to a very primal semantic sense of "contiguous; connect". Of these, at least the following transitive verbs work in this context:

• clasp, clench, clinch, clutch, clamp, cling (to), cleave (to)

Many of the words in this class aren't transitive verbs, of course. And there is more than grasping involved. 21 of the 43 'connect' words refer to connection by impact, e.g,

• clamp, clash, clobber, clout, club

and 11 of these refer to noises made by such impacts, i.e, actual onomatopoeia. E.g,

• clap, clomp, clatter, clamor, clink

It's quite an amazing display of phonosemantics.
In fact, it's clear enough to make a neat Venn Diagram.

Answer 2

Or you can use grip e.g. I gripped the clutch.