pin down

verb

pinned down; pinning down; pins down

transitive verb

1

: to cause or force (someone) to make a definite statement or decision about something

Reporters tried to pin him down on the specific changes he wants to make to the tax laws.

2

: to find out (something) with certainty

Can you pin down when the change occurred?

I'm trying to pin the source of the problem down.

Examples of pin down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Johnson has become increasingly difficult to pin down to any one scene. — Spin Staff, SPIN, 9 Sep. 2026

Beyond that simple baseline, the matrix of desire at work in Lee and Oh Jung-mi’s remarkably nuanced script is too slippery to pin down until the movie’s velvet gutpunch of a final scene. — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 6 Sep. 2026

Add it all up, and your hourly value can be hard to pin down. — Bydoug Ashburn, Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Aug. 2026

He was struck several times while pinned down and in handcuffs. — Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1765, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for pin down

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