Word.ws English Dictionary

cracking down

cracking down is the present participle and gerund 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 cracking down

What is cracking down the present participle and gerund of?
Cracking down is the present participle and gerund of crack down.

Words near cracking down in the dictionary

  1. cracking a crust
  2. cracking a fat
  3. cracking a rat
  4. cracking a smile
  5. cracking along
  6. cracking down
  7. cracking hardy
  8. cracking off
  9. cracking on
  10. cracking one off
  11. cracking onto

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cracking 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: “cracking down.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cracking_down. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.