bear down on

bear down on (third-person singular simple present bears down on, present participle bearing down on, simple past bore down on, past participle borne down on)

1. To approach someone in a very determined way.

   I could see the headmaster bearing down on me, and looked hopelessly round for a means of escape.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     We were moving slowly up the river as the creature bore down upon us with distended jaws. The long neck was far outstretched, and the four flippers with which it swam were working with powerful strokes, carrying it forward at a rapid pace.

   • 2011 December 27, Mike Henson, “Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Their first clear opportunity duly came courtesy of a mistake from Russell Martin, who was hustled off the ball by Bale, but the midfielder scooped his finish well over the top as he bore down on the Norwich goal.

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 10:57 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022:

     With reports of the Japanese forces bearing down on them confirmed, Rear Admiral Sprague orders his ships east, heading towards a series of rain squalls, hoping for concealment. This will hopefully delay the Japanese closing the range, and also draw them away from the much-more-vulnerable landing ships.