Meaning & use
tracking someone down
Last updated
Meaning
phrasefixed phrase
The act of finding someone after searching hard, often when they are hiding or hard to locate.
Grammar: Used as a noun phrase; the object comes between 'tracking' and 'down'.
Patterns
- tracking someone down
- succeed in tracking someone down
- have trouble tracking someone down
Tracking someone down who has changed their name can be very difficult.
The police spent months tracking the suspect down.
After tracking her old friend down, she sent a long letter.
Common combinations
- spend time tracking someone down
- They spent weeks tracking the missing witness down.
- succeed in tracking someone down
- She finally succeeded in tracking her brother down.
- have difficulty tracking someone down
- We had difficulty tracking the owner down.
- track someone down on the internet
- He tracked his old roommate down on the internet.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- track down phrasal verb
- The base form: to find someone after a search.
- tracker noun
- A person or device that tracks.
Commonly confused: tracking someone down or trace?
tracking someone down vs trace
To trace means to find by following a series of clues; it is often used for origins or causes, not for finding a person who is hiding.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence:
Choose one answer.
With the phrasal verb 'track down', a pronoun object must go between the verb and the particle, and a noun object can go either between or after. 'Tracked her friend down' is the most natural order for a noun object. Option 0 is also grammatical but less common; option 2 repeats 'down' and option 3 has wrong word order.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tracking someone down”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.