nail down

phrasal verb

nailed down; nailing down; nails down

1

: to make (something, such as a victory) certain to happen

They need to score another touchdown to nail down the victory.

2

: to find out or identify (something) exactly

Her doctors haven't yet been able to nail down a diagnosis.

They're trying to nail down the cause of our network problems.

3

: to make (something) definite or final

nail down a decision

Examples of nail down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So Flynn, Peppe and their colleagues turned to two high-tech dating techniques to nail down the rocks' age. —Dino Grandoni The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 26 Oct. 2025

Gabriel has been prioritized over Sanders thus nailing down the backup role in training camp and then ultimately supplanting Joe Flacco (who was later traded) as the starter. —Matthew Schmidt, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Oct. 2025

The exact timeline of the appointment process is yet to be nailed down. —Hannah Elsmore, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Oct. 2025

Ancient people tried the recipes many times before nailing down a method, Durgun said. —Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 15 Oct. 2025

Rhymes for nail down

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