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

Police have identified a suspect in the heist, though no arrests have been made and investigators are working to nail down exactly how the thief might have been able to access her vehicle keys, authorities said. —Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 18 Feb. 2026

Installation and maintenance Both types of wood flooring can be challenging and time-consuming to install, as your installer needs to nail down each plank individually. —Dan Simms, USA Today, 17 Feb. 2026

And that was after the crew in New Zealand, led by local producer Slade, started prepping the film for production before final financing had been nailed down. —Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 16 Feb. 2026

But Perardi could never nail down its provenance. —Matthew Bremner, Rolling Stone, 11 Feb. 2026

Rhymes for nail down

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