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

Look for cash The super-rich are calling lawyers to figure out the scope of their exposure and pin down a tax bill. — Anniek Bao,lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 5 Aug. 2026

The degree to which this is true is both of crucial importance and hard to pin down. — Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026

Gibbs-White — often Forest’s most important player last season — will surely pin down one of those. — Paul Taylor, New York Times, 1 Aug. 2026

In Northern Ireland, where there’s no such thing as uncontested fact, this would be a slippery process, akin to pinning down a Lough Neagh eel. — Literary Hub, 30 July 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