pin down
Formspins down, pinning down, pinned down
- 1To identify something clearly or specifically, such as a decision, a plan, or exactly what is wrong.
Something about the offer bothered her, though she couldn't quite pin it down.
The team still needs to pin down a launch date before the announcement goes out.
Similarpinpoint, identify, determine, establish, fix
Note
Something felt but not yet named is its natural object, as in the frame I can't pin it down, said of a doubt or a nagging fault. A noun object can stand on either side of down (pin down the cause, pin the cause down), but a pronoun must sit in the middle: pin it down, never pin down it.
- 2To corner someone, leaving them no way to dodge, in order to get a firm answer from them.
Reporters spent the week trying to pin the senator down on whether she would run again.
The buyer finally pinned the contractor down on a completion date.
Note
Here the thing pinned is a person, and the matter to be settled follows with on: pin the landlord down on a price. The person normally sits between pin and down. Beside the sense of naming something exactly, the difference is who commits: you pin down a date yourself, but you pin the organizer down on one, leaving them no room to hedge.
- 3In wrestling, to hold an opponent on their back so that both shoulders touch the mat or ground.
To win by a fall, you have to pin your opponent down until the referee slaps the mat.
The champion pinned his challenger down in under a minute, both shoulders flat against the canvas.
Note
On the mat this hold usually ends the bout outright, whatever the score, and wrestlers also call it a fall. Both shoulders count: a wrestler resting on one, or bridging with the back arched clear of the mat, has not been pinned. Within the sport the particle can be dropped, and the bare verb pin carries the same meaning: she pinned her opponent in under a minute.
- 4To fasten something with pins, or to hold it firmly in place with them.
Pin the map down at each corner so it lies flat against the corkboard.
Before cutting, the tailor pinned down the paper pattern along every edge of the fabric.
Similarfasten, secure, tack, fix
Note
Pins hold more than cloth and paper. Railway Magazine of March 1955 counts about a thousand places on British Railways where wagon brakes had to be pinned down before a train went over a severe falling gradient, and each train was first brought to a stand. There the thing pinned is a brake, held on for the descent, but the sense is the same: fixed firmly so it cannot move.
Practice
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