to move quickly towards someone in a determined and threatening way
to push or press downwards
I can't have a wobbly surface when I'm trying to bear down.
I could see a police car bearing down on us.
I'd run this gauntlet with clients a zillion times, there was nothing to do but bear down and go forward.
It’s a natural instinct for a woman giving birth to bear down.
The structure is positioned to bear down on its supports.
The wind reached Harmony, slamming her boom to port; she began to bear down on Grace.
These two things seemed to bear down on me with all the weight of a personal failure.
bears down
bearing down
bore down
borne down
There is no origin for this phrasal verb
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