1 (fasten or hold down) sujetar /I tried to pin down the butterfly's wings/ so that I could examine it
he pinned me down by my wrists me sujetó por las muñecas; I was pinned down by a fallen tree quedé atrapado bajo un árbol caído
I'd try to get away and he'd pin me down, saying he would kill me
2 (oblige to be specific) to pin sb down hacer que algn concrete; she is really hard to pin down es difícil hacerla concretar; the minister refused to be pinned down on the timing of the reforms el ministro no quiso comprometerse a dar fechas específicas para las reformas; you can't pin him down to a date es imposible lograr que nos dé una fecha concreta
he was hard to pin down on specifics they refused to be pinned down on numbers, but it is unlikely the government will allow unrestricted immigration to pin sb down to a promise he was anxious to pin the Minister down to some definite commitment see if you can pin him down to naming a price they're determined to pin the government down to saying exactly what it means
(identify) [+problem] identificar; [+concept] precisar; definir; [+reason] dar con; [+date] precisar the idea is rather hard to pin down es un concepto difícil de precisar definir;or there's something wrong but I can't pin it down algo va mal pero no sé exactamente qué
she was asked to pin down the museum's appeal in one sentence they seem to have the situation pretty well pinned down there's something odd I can't quite pin down we asked her what's wrong but she can't pin down the problem spirituality is a hard concept to pin down it is actually quite difficult to pin down exactly what marketing involves at the back of her mind she was trying to pin down what it was that bothered her few would be able to pin down exactly what makes a Reed film great a scientific method for pinning down the age of rocks I can't pin it down, but it was sometime towards the end of 1984 new work by an astronomer has pinned down two possible dates for the Crucifixion police forces are continuing inquiries to try and pin the whereabouts of the suspect down we can't pin down the reason why the system sometimes fails
3 (Mil) [+troops] atrapar our men were pinned down by artillery fire nuestros hombres se vieron atrapados por fuego de artillería
the battalion was pinned (down) against the river for several hours the troops had been pinned down on the beaches hundreds of thousands of men pinned down by shelling from enemy guns
