to pin down
20
3.5
- phrasal verb
- /pɪn daʊn/
:
precisar
- In the meeting, we need to pin down the final details of the project before we proceed.
- difficult to pin down
- hard to pin down
- impossible to pin down
So now let's ask how that pins down the number of firms in the market.
- So now let's ask how that pins down the number of firms in the market.
- It's so nebulous and hard to pin down what it is to be likable.
- But yeah, can I just come back to maybe just pinning down, like, why we should believe this?
- So it helps us to pin down where certain processes could have possibly happened.
- It's like it's, I have it pinned down.
- That way, scientists have been able to pin down the length of the day to a precision of a few milliseconds.
- It's tricky, it's slippery, it's hard to pin down.
- So playing suboptimally, playing chaotically as a way to make you hard to pin down about what your strategy is.
- We don't often ask ourselves that, but it is a very ill defined phenomenon and that makes it hard to pin down.
- And I've done that for other characters as well as a way of pinning down a character's voice and being able to then draw on that.
- They tell you about things that are clear, external speech and other things that are much more obscure and hard to pin down.
- You see, for me, I'm undefined now that I, I cannot be pinned down.
Examples
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The detective worked hard to pin down the suspect's whereabouts on the night of the crime.
-
The more I learned about other states, the harder it was to pin down the essence of mine.
Academic text (2001) -
Really trying to pin down those those big questions.
-
And the other concept that I wanted to pin down was was rent.
-
And each time it's been quite difficult to pin down an answer.
-
So it helps us to pin down where certain processes could have possibly happened.
-
So unless we pin down what happened, we're encouraging these bad actors.
-
You need to pin down an object of study, a first principle from which other principles can emerge.
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Unfortunately, the precise content of these background rules is surprisingly difficult to pin down.
Academic text (2017) -
Instead, the project speaks to an inability to pin down the photograph's specific "social and cultural uses."
Academic text (2010)
Synonyms
129
3.5
Make a list of choices smaller until only a few remain
123
4.0
To find the exact place or cause of something
118
3.5
To give clear, exact details about something
78
6.0
To find exactly when or why something happened
35
5.6
Find the exact reason for something hard to explain
20
4.6
Decide the exact details of a plan or agreement
To make exact details clear and certain
How Precise
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to attach ... with a pin, making it stay in a fixed position' is directly derivable from combining 'pin' (to hold/fasten) with 'down' (indicating fixation or securing). This verb+particle composition follows a transparent, cross-linguistic pattern so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the intended literal meaning.
Etymology
Pin down comes from the image of sticking a pin into a map or paper to mark an exact spot or date. That simple act makes the idea fixed and clear, which is why the phrase means 'to clearly define or identify'.