From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcrack down phrasal verbSTRICTto become more strict in dealing with a problem and punishing the people involved on The government is determined to crack down on terrorism. The police are cracking down hard on violent crime. → crackdown → crack→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
crack down• Still, the response by state officials to the Mixteco unrest has been to launch negotiations rather than to crack down.• The story shows Lautro to be an unsentimental regulator with the power and will to crack down hard.• A beam cracked down into its sockets.• The immediate trigger for the protest is a parliamentary bill designed to crack down on illegal immigration.• President Clinton promptly announced a law to crack down on juvenile criminals and a new computer database to track gang activity.• His skull cracked down on the steering wheel.• The U. S. Department of Labor has cracked down on wage violations in the past four years.crack on• In the first week of the police crack-down, over 500 car thieves were arrested.• Teachers must crack down on bullying as soon as they become aware of it.• The government has promised to crack down on crime.• Only by cracking down on dealers, can we stop young people getting involved with drugs.• The Athletics Federation plans to crack down on drug and steroid abuse by athletes.• a crack-down on drug dealers• Synod members were under pressure to crack down on gay clergy, who were portrayed as leading lives of wild abandon!• President Clinton promptly announced a law to crack down on juvenile criminals and a new computer database to track gang activity.• The authorities have been reluctant to crack down on pachinko for other reasons as well.• We have to crack down on software pirates.• Davies was eventually caught during a government crack-down on tax evasion.• The authorities are determined to crack down on terrorism.• It is too late to crack down on the oligarchs or seize their ill-gotten gains.• City authorities were quick to crack down on the rioters.• After all, the rangers said they were cracking down on the trade of money for tickets.• Airlines reportedly are cracking down on this thriving but illegal trade.• But a year ago, Putin came to power vowing to crack down on wayward regions. 