nail down

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

My challenge tends to be structure and momentum, both of which simply take time, or trial and error, to nail down. —Literary Hub, 12 May 2026

Physicists can’t even say how the three neutrino masses are ordered, let alone nail down their exact values. —Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 8 May 2026

Simulating the emissions of diesel generators Comprehensive data is hard to nail down about locations of data centers and which ones have how many diesel generators on site. —Peter Adams, The Conversation, 6 May 2026

Past 2026, only two of the offensive line’s five positions are nailed down for the long term. —Joe Buscaglia, New York Times, 4 May 2026

Rhymes for nail down

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