track down

British  

verb

1. (tr, adverb) to find by tracking or pursuing

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track down Idioms  

1. Follow successfully, locate, as in I've been trying to track down that book but haven't had any luck. This term alludes to the literal use of track, “follow the footsteps of.” [Second half of 1800s]

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Example Sentences

For more than half a century, the sisters did not know if each other was alive, let alone where they lived, until a Facebook group helped Theresa track down her sisters in July 2025.

From BBC

It was not until ten years later that the US Navy's Seal Team Six commandos tracked down the al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, in a villa in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

From BBC

The tag was also, incidentally, a play on “The Blue Dahlia,” a 1946 movie written by Raymond Chandler and starring Veronica Lake as a plucky drifter who helps the hero track down his wife’s murderer.

From The Wall Street Journal

"Hold On to Me" from Cyprus traces the efforts of an 11-year-old tracking down her estranged father, while documentary "Kikuyu Land" from Kenya examines how powerful outside forces use local corruption to dispossess a people.

From Barron's

Now, Bekewei is on the other side of the law, working as a ranger tracking down hunters and loggers in the sprawling reserve.

From Barron's