cracked down; cracking down; cracks down
: to take positive regulatory or disciplinary action
Synonyms
Examples of crackdown in a Sentence
Noun
Companies that pollute are the target of a new crackdown.
Verb
a repressive government that cracked down on political demonstrations
Recent Examples on the Web
Jorge Rueda and Regina Garcia Cano, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2024
Some suburban city councils used local police powers to aid in INS/ICE crackdowns on undocumented immigrants at factories, bus stops, and apartment buildings.
—Becky Nicolaides / Made By History, TIME, 15 Aug. 2024
Sareen Habeshian, Axios, 15 Aug. 2024
University leaders at dozens of campuses cracked down on protesters using arrests, sanctions and deferred diplomas.
—David Goldman, CNN, 15 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for crackdown 
Noun
The detentions — urged by Maduro himself — is unprecedented, and puts Venezuela on pace to easily exceed those jailed during three previous crackdowns against Maduro’s opponents.
—Jorge Rueda and Regina Garcia Cano, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2024
Some suburban city councils used local police powers to aid in INS/ICE crackdowns on undocumented immigrants at factories, bus stops, and apartment buildings.
—Becky Nicolaides / Made By History, TIME, 15 Aug. 2024
Verb
As colleges became flashpoints of unrest over Gaza, Columbia's administration and police cracked down through a wave of arrests, suspensions and class cancellations.
—Sareen Habeshian, Axios, 15 Aug. 2024
University leaders at dozens of campuses cracked down on protesters using arrests, sanctions and deferred diplomas.
—David Goldman, CNN, 15 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for crackdown
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'crackdown.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near crackdown
Cite this Entry
“Crackdown.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crackdown. Accessed 11 Sep. 2024.
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