bear down

1. 1.

   exert a force with a heavy weight

   “The snow bore down on the roof”

   Synonymsdrag downbear down onpress down onweigh down

   Broaderpress
2. 2.

   contract the abdominal muscles during childbirth to ease delivery

   Synonymsoverbear

   Broadercompress
3. 3.

   to make a rush at or sudden attack upon, as in battle

   “he saw Jess charging at him with a pitchfork”

   Synonymscharge

   Broaderrush
4. 4.

   exert full strength

   “The pitcher bore down”

   Broadercontend

   baseball

5. 5.

   pay special attention to

   “The lectures bore down on the political background”

   Broaderstress
6. 6.

   exert a force or cause a strain upon

   “This tax bears down on the lower middle class”

   Broadercharge

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.