bear down

verb

bore down; borne down also born down; bearing down; bears down

transitive verb

: overcome, overwhelm

intransitive verb

: to exert full strength and concentrated attention

see also:

bear down on

Synonyms of bear down

• weigh (on or upon)
• press
• shove
• compress

Examples of bear down in a Sentence

you need to bear down on that cap a bit to get it to latch tightly

Recent Examples on the Web

In a small act of unselfishness, Celebrini then passed the puck to Collin Graf, only to have the Sharks winger send it right back to the still-teenaged wunderkind, who quickly fired the puck into the open net with a defender bearing down on him for his second goal of the game. —Curtis Pashelka, Mercury News, 14 Apr. 2026

As a storm bore down on the city this winter, Mamdani's calls on social media for more snow shovelers helped recruit thousands of new shovelers. —ABC News, 10 Apr. 2026

His slick social media videos helped recruit thousands of new snow shovelers as a storm bore down on the city. —Anthony Izaguirre, Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2026

But Zerpa bore down and got out of the inning by getting Salvador Perez to fly out to center and Lane Thomas to ground out to short. —Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 5 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for bear down

• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown
• godown
• hometown

Kids Definition

bear down

verb

1

: overwhelm, overcome

2

: to press or weigh down

3

: to make an all-out effort

4

: to weigh heavily on : burden

Medical Definition

bear down

intransitive verb

(ˈ)ba(ə)r-ˈdau̇n, (ˈ)be(ə)r- 

: to contract the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm during childbirth