Word.ws English Dictionary

cracked down

cracked down is the simple past and past participle of crack down.

Meaning of crack down

Verb

crack down (third-person singular simple present cracks down, present participle cracking down, simple past and past participle cracked down)

  1. (idiomatic, often) To take harsh action (against), as when enforcing a law or rule more stringently than before.
    • The authorities are trying to crack down on drunk driving during the holidays.

Questions about cracked down

What is cracked down the simple past and past participle of?
Cracked down is the simple past and past participle of crack down.

Words near cracked down in the dictionary

  1. cracked a fat
  2. cracked a rat
  3. cracked a smile
  4. cracked along
  5. cracked as an egg
  6. cracked down
  7. cracked hardy
  8. cracked off
  9. cracked on
  10. cracked one off
  11. cracked onto

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cracked down (page history and authors); crack down (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cracked down.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cracked_down. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.