Phrasal verb
drill down through
Definition
phrasal verb. to look at information in a very detailed way to find the cause of a problem or a specific fact.
phrasal verb. to perform a systematic, granular analysis of data or hierarchical information to identify underlying causes or specific details.
Examples
“We need to drill down through these sales figures to find the problem.”
“The auditor spent all afternoon drilling down through the expense reports to locate the missing funds.”
“By drilling down through layers of historical demographic data, the researchers identified a significant shift in urban migration patterns that previous studies had overlooked.”
Examples
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.”
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.
Phrasal verb
Particles
down through
Separability
inseparable
Pattern
drill + down + through + object
Synonyms
Antonyms
Grammar
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/drill-down-through