cracked down; cracking down; cracks down
: to take positive regulatory or disciplinary action
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
Mariya Knight, CNN Money, 18 Apr. 2025
International students – including at prestigious American universities – have been targeted amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown.
—Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 18 Apr. 2025
Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 19 Apr. 2025
The White House wants the colleges to crack down against antisemitism, which has gotten out of control on far too many campuses (including Columbia and Harvard) since the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
—New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 15 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for crackdown
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Noun
Currently, more than 1,500 people are imprisoned on political grounds in Russia, according to a tally by OVD-Info, with Moscow’s crackdown on dissent escalating since the war began.
—Mariya Knight, CNN Money, 18 Apr. 2025
International students – including at prestigious American universities – have been targeted amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown.
—Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 18 Apr. 2025
Verb
This all comes as Trump promised to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. story on the campaign trail and signed several executive orders seeking to crack down on immigration since January.
—Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 19 Apr. 2025
The White House wants the colleges to crack down against antisemitism, which has gotten out of control on far too many campuses (including Columbia and Harvard) since the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
—New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 15 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for crackdown
Cite this Entry
“Crackdown.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crackdown. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share