pin down
verb
pinned down; pinning down; pins down
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
Researchers spent years running increasingly sophisticated experiments to pin down the interloper.
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Quanta Magazine, 8 Apr. 2026
Thomas, an eminent artist and scholar, is protean and stubborn, aging and ageless, keenly attentive and impossible to pin down.
—Andrew Marantz, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026
The characteristics of individual gods could be hard to pin down.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Apr. 2026
What makes the full public cost harder to pin down is that not every expense is disclosed or presented in one place.
—Adam Annaccone, The Conversation, 1 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for pin down
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Quanta Magazine, 8 Apr. 2026
Thomas, an eminent artist and scholar, is protean and stubborn, aging and ageless, keenly attentive and impossible to pin down.
—Andrew Marantz, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026
The characteristics of individual gods could be hard to pin down.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Apr. 2026
What makes the full public cost harder to pin down is that not every expense is disclosed or presented in one place.
—Adam Annaccone, The Conversation, 1 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for pin down
Cite this Entry
“Pin down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pin%20down. Accessed 12 Apr. 2026.
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