Cut

/kʌt/ · verb

Meaning

(chiefly transitive) To incise, to cut into the surface of something..

Definitions by Sense

1. (chiefly transitive) To incise, to cut into the surface of something.
2. (intransitive) To admit of incision or severance; to yield to a cutting instrument.
3. (transitive, social) To separate, remove, reject or reduce.
4. (transitive, social) To ignore as a social rebuff or snub.
5. (intransitive, film) To make an abrupt transition from one scene or image to another.
6. (transitive, film) To edit a film by selecting takes from original footage.
7. (transitive, computing) To remove (text, a picture, etc.) and place in memory in order to paste at a later time.
8. (intransitive) To enter a queue in the wrong place.

Example Sentences

The panels of white-wood that cuts like cheese, / But lasts like iron for things like these;

After the incident at the dinner party, people started to cut him on the street.

At first it had been very painful to him to meet any of his old friends, … but this soon passed; either they cut him, or he cut them; it was not nice being cut for the first time or two, but after that, it became rather pleasant than not … The ordeal is a painful one, but if a man's moral and intellectual constitution are naturally sound, there is nothing which will give him so much strength of character as having been well cut.

The ordinary people greet him (Aaron Burr) warmly while the respectable folk tend to cut him dead.

The Monthly Magazine, Or, British Register for 1798 included an explanation by a reader of how the cut was carried out in his college days in a lengthy letter to the editor, signed by the pseudonym "Ansonius." In his rambling letter, Ansonius noted that when he was at college, " … if a man passed an old acquaintance wittingly, without recognizing him, he was said— ‘To cut him.’" Ansonius then went on to explain the performance of the cut and noted that for a time the term "to spear" was used instead of to cut. However, that term did not remain long in use, and this act was generally known as "the cut" ever after.

The camera then cut to the woman on the front row who was clearly overcome and crying tears of joy.

Select the text, cut it, and then paste it in the other application.

One student kept trying to cut in front of the line.

Synonyms for cut

Antonyms for cut

Related Words

Word Forms

• cuts
• cutting
• cut
• cutted
• cutten
• cvt
• more cut
• most cut
• cut!

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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