getting down to bedrock
Reaching the essentials
Getting down to bedrock means reaching the most fundamental level of something—the basic facts, core principles, or irreducible truth beneath layers of complexity or confusion.
The image comes from digging through soil until you hit solid rock: We need to get down to bedrock before we can move forward.
The phrase suggests stripping away assumptions to find what's undeniably true or essential.
- foundationalServing as a base
- analysisMethodical study of parts
- essentialFundamentally necessary
- coreCentral essential portion
- brass tacksEssential facts discussed
nitty gritty · digging · deconstruction · reductionism · underlying · principle · intrinsic · elemental · clarity · root · basis · simplification · cutting through · truth · geology · reasoning · investigation · deduction
getting down to bedrockglossing over
Superficially covering faults
taking at face value · skating over · papering over · shallow dive · missing the point
getting down to bedrockon shaky ground
grasping at straws · speculation · conjecture · guesswork · castles in the air
getting down to bedrockcastles in the air
Fanciful, impractical schemes
hand-waving · fuzzy thinking · shooting from the hip · idle speculation
get, gets, got, gotten, down, downs, downed, downing, downer