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

However, a lack of data makes the exact timings for the Daytime Sextantids peak relatively difficult to pin down. — Anthony Wood, Space.com, 26 Sep. 2026

Across two seasons packed with twisty machinations, Jung’s virtuous prosecutor Jang Geon-young attempted to pin down Hyun’s shamelessly corrupt — but effortlessly cool — intelligence officer Baek Ki-tae, only to be outfoxed at every turn. — Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 24 Sep. 2026

The reasons for this planet-wide drop in procreation, however, are hard to pin down and hotly debated, and, like most other big questions in the United States, they have been absorbed into larger culture-war arguments. — Ian Crouch, New Yorker, 24 Sep. 2026

Dickey has built on Scholes’ work to pin down network properties that produce quantumlike states and is working to find computationally efficient ways to produce them. — Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 23 Sep. 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