nail down

phrasal verb

nailed down; nailing down; nails down

: to make (something, such as a victory) certain to happen

They need to score another touchdown to nail down the victory.

: to find out or identify (something) exactly

Her doctors haven't yet been able to nail down a diagnosis.

They're trying to nail down the cause of our network problems.

: to make (something) definite or final

nail down a decision

Examples of nail down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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The Act took several years to nail down, largely because of a controversy over whether energy policy should favor fossil fuels or solar and wind power. —

Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024 This will help the researchers reproducibly nail down the optimal mycorrhizal inoculation formula for all future na’u cultivation. —

Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024 But the connection between greater weight loss and other factors is harder to nail down. —

Kristen Fischer, Health, 17 Oct. 2024 Perhaps just as tough as nailing down funding or compute power is securing the top AI talent in Silicon Valley. —

Kylie Robison, The Verge, 3 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for nail down