bear down

Questions about bear down

What does bear down mean?

bear down means "exert a force with a heavy weight". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for bear down?

Close synonyms include drag down, bear down on, press down on, weigh down, overbear. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is bear down a common word?

bear down is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.