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🌪️ To approach fast 🎯 To focus effort 🤰 To push hard 🏋️ To press heavily
to bear down

to bear down

2 7.0
Press hard on something or make it feel heavy
  • phrasal verb
  • /bɛr daʊn/
translation icon : oprimir
  • "Though we strategize and plan ways to avoid the wall, sometimes it bears down and smacks us in the face."
  • weight bearing down
  • pressure bearing down
  • the sun bearing down

The Hummingbird prevails, the golden bee hovers, The air bears down on the canopy as furniture, music.

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Examples

  • The rest of the day hung there, like a punishing desert sun, bearing down on him.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • So much effort expended and so little gained—the weight of it bore down on him.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The weight of a hundred passenger eyes bears down upon Susan.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Instead, he slipped a tough hold on Brian and bore down, hard.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Our curfew bore down on us, as it always did.

    Blog text (31)

  • The moment she stepped into the music school, her belly swelled up and the pain bore down on her, making it too hard to breathe.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Like the weight of a mammoth tusk on his shoulders, the burden bore down on him.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Reynaldo paid and sat drinking his water in small sips as the afternoon sun bore down on his bare scalp.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The band of raiders and captives walked for hours, the midday heat bearing down hard upon the women and children, who were given only enough water to keep them going.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • I felt the weight of my responsibilities bearing down on me as the deadline approached.

Synonyms

to drag down
vsto bear down
29 4.0

To pull something down by weight or force

is about overall strong force or burden rather than mainly pulling action
to push down
vsto bear down
16 2.0

Make something move down by using force

is about general strong pressure or burden rather than only moving something lower
to press down on
vsto bear down
8 2.2

Push something down using your hand or weight

applies a stronger or broader force, including heavy pressure or an added burden
to weight down
vsto bear down
4 4.1

To make someone or something heavy by giving them more to carry

covers physical force or a burdensome effect beyond merely adding load
to weigh down
vsto bear down
4 3.6

Make something heavier so it bends or sinks

focuses on pressure or burden more broadly rather than only added heaviness
to ram down
vsto bear down
1 7.1

To force something down by hitting it hard

uses strong force but also covers heavy burden or sustained pressure
to load down
vsto bear down
  • Informal
1 4.2

To make someone or something carry too many heavy things

is broader, including direct force or pressure as well as creating a burden

Antonyms

to release
∞ 1.8

To let someone or something go free from being held

How Forceful

to crush
401 1.6
to bear down
2 7.0
to push
∞ 1.0
to touch
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

bear down infinitive
bearing down present participle
bears down third person singular
bore down past
bore down past participle

Morphology

bear + down

The constituents 'bear' (to carry/hold/endure) and 'down' (toward a lower position) combine to evoke applying weight or force downward, so a learner who knows both words could plausibly infer a sense of exerting pressure. However, 'bear' has multiple senses and the specific phrasal usage (especially in figurative senses like 'pressure' or 'burden') is somewhat idiomatic and requires familiarity with the verb+particle pattern, so the mapping is not fully predictable.

Etymology

Bear down meaning to exert pressure comes from the image of weight pressing on something. For example, heavy snow seems to bear on a roof and push it down, so the phrase means 'to put strong pressure or burden on'.