as in to quell
to put a stop to (something) by the use of force
a repressive government that cracked down on political demonstrations
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for crack down (on)
Verb
-
The security adjustments aren’t expected to quell Mexico’s World Cup fever.
-
The people ended up burning down the house of one of the tax collectors, prompting President George Washington to raise the first federal army against them and quickly quell the revolt.
Verb
-
Record-setting heat is suspected in 25 deaths from the Deep South to the Midwest to the East Coast, authorities said, with the temperature highs also suppressing some Fourth of July celebrations.
-
When coated onto a polypropylene separator with graphene, the material formed a thin interfacial layer that readily absorbed electrolyte while suppressing polysulfide migration.
Verb
-
Upon their return, most ended up in countries that were invaded and subdued by the German army.
-
Over a decade, more than 1,000 people have died across the country after police subdued them through means not intended to be lethal, such as physical holds, Tasers and body blows, an investigation led by The Associated Press found.
Verb
-
But Field, whose perpetual restlessness had driven his climb to business success, wasn’t suited to sit on the sidelines.
-
Another capability comes from processing unstructured information, since companies already sit on enormous amounts of customer feedback, reviews, research, operational data and industry commentary, but historically, going through all of it manually took far too much time.
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.
Cite this Entry
“Crack down (on).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/crack%20down%20%28on%29. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
