cut to the chase

English

Etymology

From cinema usage: to cut (edit a film) so as to get to the exciting part. Also, preceded by Chaucer c.1400, "The Wife of Bath's Tale"- "And shortly forth this tale for to chace" (To cut a long story short).

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

cut to the chase (third-person singular simple present cuts to the chase, present participle cutting to the chase, simple past and past participle cut to the chase)

1. (idiomatic) To get to the point; to get on with it; to state something directly.

   We don't have much time here. Could you cut to the chase?

   • 2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1):

     Allen Gregory DeLongpre: I don't like to play games, the whole wait three days to text you, flirt with other women in front of you. It's exhausting. Let's just cut to the chase. We're in love with each other.

Synonyms

• cut to Hecuba (dated)
• get on with it
• get to the point

Antonyms

• beat around the bush

Translations

to get to the point

• Danish: komme til sagen
• Dutch: ter zake komen, met de deur in huis vallen
• Finnish: mennä asiaan
• French: aller droit au but (fr), aller à l’essentiel (fr)
• German: auf den Punkt kommen (de), Butter bei die Fische (de)
• Greek: μπαίνω στο ψητό (baíno sto psitó)
• Hungarian: a lényegre tér
• Italian: andare al sodo, venire al sodo, venire al dunque
• Korean: 거두절미(去頭截尾)하다 (ko) (geodujeolmihada)
• Norwegian: komme til poenget
• Polish: przejść do rzeczy pf
• Portuguese: ir direto ao ponto (pt), ir direto ao assunto (pt)
• Romanian: trece la subiect
• Russian: (come onto business) перейти́ к де́лу (perejtí k délu)
• Spanish: ir al grano, ir al ajo del asunto, ir al meollo, acortar envites
• Swedish: komma till saken
• Turkish: sadede gelmek (tr)
• Ukrainian: перейти до справи (perejty do spravy), перейти до суті (perejty do suti)

See also

• cut to the quick

Further reading

• cut to the chase on Wikipedia.Wikipedia