drill down

verb

drilled down; drilling down; drills down

transitive + intransitive

: to thoroughly consider or analyze : examine

Although drilling down into all of the complications of the 2007 to 2009 economic and financial crisis is a task requiring more verbosity than a column permits, a quick rundown for context is worthwhile.

—M. Ray Perryman

But we don't have much data that drills down on the voting preferences of people in specific jobs, to distinguish between, say, dishwashers and factory workers.

—Irv Randolph

Matches are based on a lengthy questionnaire that drills down the specifics of your dating preferences and personality.

—Dorothy Pitti

Examples of drill down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

At the Degemar quarries, drilled down to 30 meters (yards) under sea level, bright blue ponds of sulfur springs pool the travertine residue as flat-bed trucks haul stone slabs weighing 33 tons up to street level. —ABC News, 19 Feb. 2026

The second round of interviews were to drill down on specific points made either during the initial deposition, or to follow up on points made by other current and former employees. —Joe Vardon, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2026

But lawmakers generally did not drill down into the changes at CBP and USCIS, despite those agencies' growing roles in immigration enforcement over the last year. —Ximena Bustillo, NPR, 10 Feb. 2026

In demonstrating the technology to CalMatters, using an imaginary 56-year-old female patient who complained of trouble breathing, Scope asked several follow-up questions to drill down on her symptoms. —Cal Matters, Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1996, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for drill down

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