bear down on

Verb

bear down on (third-person singular simple present bears down on, present participle bearing down on, simple past bore down on, past participle borne down on)

1. To approach someone in a very determined way.
   • I could see the headmaster bearing down on me, and looked hopelessly round for a means of escape.
   • We were moving slowly up the river as the creature bore down upon us with distended jaws. The long neck was far outstretched, and the four flippers with which it swam were working with powerful strokes, carrying it forward at a rapid pace.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...