on the cutting room floor

English

Etymology

From the earliest film-editing process, which involved manually removing (cutting) unwanted scenes, leaving the film scraps on the floor of the room used for editing (the cutting room).

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

on the cutting room floor

1. (idiomatic) Not included in the finalized version of something; deliberately rejected or unintentionally overlooked.

   The experimental broccoli ice cream flavor was left on the cutting room floor after market research.

Related terms

• final cut

See also

• trash heap of history