cut corners
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]cut corners (third-person singular simple present cuts corners, present participle cutting corners, simple past and past participle cut corners)
- To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or other rules of the road.
- 1882, Dan Seffert, quoted in “Half Hours with Dan Seffert”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Volume 39, page 275:
- […] but I believe the old man did not ride fair, as he cut corners and joined in with them again […]
- 1882, Dan Seffert, quoted in “Half Hours with Dan Seffert”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Volume 39, page 275:
- (idiomatic) To do a less-than-thorough or incomplete job; to do something poorly; to take inappropriate shortcuts.
- The guy who built the fence cut corners when sinking the posts, and the fence fell over in the last storm.
- Do you know why Wendy's has square burgers? Because they don't cut corners.
Synonyms
[edit]- (do a less-than-thorough job): skimp, take short cuts, follow the path of least resistance, take the easy way out, (slang) half-ass
Translations
[edit]bypass a prescribed route
do a less-than-thorough or incomplete job
|