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

The problem was that those ratios depend not only on temperature but also on the composition of the water present in the animal’s body, which was something nobody could pin down for an extinct creature. — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 20 Sep. 2026

Other experiments could potentially help pin down its properties further. — Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 14 Sep. 2026

Love is a tricky thing to pin down, especially from the outside looking in. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 10 Sep. 2026

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