Crackdown

noun

noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Abruptly stern measures or disciplinary action; increased enforcement. countable, uncountable

    "After a harsh police crackdown last week fueled anger and swelled protests, President Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla who was imprisoned under the dictatorship and has now become the target of pointed criticism herself, tried to appease dissenters by embracing their cause on Tuesday."

  2. 2
    severely repressive actions wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
censorshiprepressionsmashingstranglingsubdualsuffocating

Example

More examples

"The police began a crackdown on illegal parking."

Etymology

Deverbal from crack down.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.