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

After slowly changing the theatrical underworld as the king of midnight movies, Curry spent the rest of his acting career gleefully refusing to be pinned down. — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 Aug. 2026

Miller was 23 years old and weighed 135 pounds in March 2025, when two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers weighing about 400 pounds in total pinned down his body and hands while a third officer tased him. — Charlotte Observer, 22 Aug. 2026

Save to wishlist Wedgwood is hard to pin down to just one look, and that’s sort of the point. — Angela Tafoya, Architectural Digest, 21 Aug. 2026

The wild card in the Society is Gloria (Greta Lee, dazzlingly good), an impish sprite who’s hard to pin down. — Los Angeles Times, 14 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