ENGLISH
REFERENCE

drill down through

phr. v..
C1 Advanced Oxford

phr. v.. to look at information in a very detailed way to find the cause of a problem or a specific fact.

phr. v.. to perform a systematic, granular analysis of data or hierarchical information to identify underlying causes or specific details.


SIMPLE

We need to drill down through these sales figures to find the problem.

CONTEXTUAL

The auditor spent all afternoon drilling down through the expense reports to locate the missing funds.

COMPLEX

By drilling down through layers of historical demographic data, the researchers identified a significant shift in urban migration patterns that previous studies had overlooked.

Particles
down through
Separability
inseparable
Pattern
drill + down + through + object
Usage

often used in business or technical contexts when discussing data, reports, or complex problems.

Teaching tip

this is an extension of the phrasal verb 'drill down'; the addition of 'through' emphasizes moving through multiple layers of information or obstacles.

Pitfall

We must drill down through of the data.We must drill down through the data.'through' is a preposition here and does not require an extra 'of' before the object.

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