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View synonyms for crack down

crack down

verb

  1. to take severe measures (against); become stricter (with)
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. severe or repressive measures
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Idioms and Phrases

Act more forcefully to regulate, repress, or restrain. For example, The police cracked down on speeding . [1930s]
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Example Sentences

Just as we cannot simply “crack down on guns,” we cannot just crack down on warrior cops and expect life to return to “normal.”

Major League Baseball actually does not penalize usage in the bigs, but does crack down on minor leaguers.

Japanese law enforcement uses all the laws available to crack down on the yakuza.

On Friday, key senators pressed the Obama administration to crack down on Russian human rights violators.

But despite a string of high-profile deaths linked to the drug, feds have found it a slippery target to crack down on.

That crack down in the back lane at Edmonton, Blathers, said Mr. Duff, assisting his colleagues memory.

You know—why should I crack down on drinking or smoking, for instance, when I do it myself?

The reasons that the Soviet Union did not crack down on its former subservient satellite are both obscure and complex.

The shock to the latter appeared to have had the effect of jarring it sufficiently to crack down great blocks all along its face.

The eyes are still closed, but a crack down the center of each is visible by the 13th day.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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