crackdown

US/ˈkɹækdaʊn/

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,825 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: crackdowns

A crackdown is a sudden severe effort to stop something. A crackdown on speeding, announce a crackdown, a police crackdown.

The word belongs to headlines and to governments announcing them, and it says the enforcement is sharp and temporary. It usually takes on. Note the compound from crack down, the phrasal verb, which keeps its two words as a verb.

Definitions of crackdown

1nouncrackdownA sudden severe effort to stop something.B2+
“The police announced a crackdown on drivers using mobile phones.”

crackdown is an enforcement.

Where it comes from

Deverbal from crack down.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Phrasal Verbs

Practise this word

crackdown in the wild

During the crackdown, the Ethiopian government put hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation by blockading food aid to the region.
2007–2008 Ethiopian crackdown in Ogaden
Black Spring was the 2003 crackdown by the Cuban Government on Cuban dissidents.
Black Spring (Cuba)
The crackdown on dissidents began on 18 March, during the US invasion of Iraq, and lasted two days.
Black Spring (Cuba)
The crackdown was the culmination of months of protests that called for the Democrat Party-led government of Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and hold elections.
2010 Thai military crackdown
The crackdowns occurred in the vicinity of protest sites near Phan Fa Lilat Bridge and Ratchaprasong intersection.
2010 Thai military crackdown

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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