drill down

verb

drilled down; drilling down; drills down

transitive + intransitive

: to thoroughly consider or analyze : examine

If you drill down into his platform, it's mostly the same stuff Democrats support, but more of it …

—Jonathan Chait

Although drilling down into all of the complications of the 2007 to 2009 economic and financial crisis is a task requiring more verbosity than a column permits, a quick rundown for context is worthwhile.

—M. Ray Perryman

But we don't have much data that drills down on the voting preferences of people in specific jobs, to distinguish between, say, dishwashers and factory workers.

—Irv Randolph

Matches are based on a lengthy questionnaire that drills down the specifics of your dating preferences and personality.

—Dorothy Pitti

Examples of drill down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

During hectic times of the NBA schedule—such as the beginning of the offseason, when players are first changing teams—Marks often appears on ESPN in front of a large touch screen, drilling down on a team’s balance sheet in the same way Kornacki might with a Wisconsin swing district. —Jordan Sargent, The Atlantic, 6 Feb. 2025

Insights from the Rally Board 65 can be fed into Logitech’s Sync software, a centralized platform for IT teams that gives an overall view of an organization’s meeting room use with a drill down for details on specific room performance. —Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 22 Jan. 2025

Sector spotlight and working models Contradictions continue as the report drills down into industry-specific wellbeing. —Amanda Kavanagh | This Column Was Created By Jobbio, The Hill, 3 Jan. 2025

The nomination hearing was the first chance to drill down into how Lutnick thinks about policy issues. —Maria Curi, Axios, 29 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1996, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for drill down

• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown
• godown
• hometown