Crackdown
nounA sudden, severe effort by authorities to enforce rules or suppress an activity.
How to spell crackdown
9 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce crackdown
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does crackdown mean?
- nounA sudden, severe effort by authorities to enforce rules or suppress an activity.
Crackdown in a sentence
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The council announced a crackdown on illegal parking near the station.
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The new crackdown on tax fraud led to dozens of investigations.
Where does crackdown come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Crackdown is a modern compound formed from the phrasal verb 'crack down', which emerged in American English in the early twentieth century. The verb 'crack' comes from the Old English 'cracian', meaning to make a sharp explosive sound or to break suddenly, while 'down' derives from the Old English 'dune', a shortening of 'adune' meaning 'off the hill' or 'in a lowered direction'. To 'crack down' on something pictured the forceful, sudden application of authority, as if striking it sharply from above. By the 1930s the two words were welded into a single noun naming a severe or stern enforcement of rules. Because both halves are plain everyday English words joined without any change in spelling, the compound holds no real surprises for the writer.
How the word is built
- crack (verb, to break or strike sharply)
- down (adverb, in a forceful or suppressive direction)
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