cut corners

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

cut corners (third-person singular simple present cuts corners, present participle cutting corners, simple past and past participle cut corners)

1. 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 […]

2. (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.

Synonyms

• (do a less-than-thorough job): skimp, take short cuts, follow the path of least resistance, take the easy way out

Translations

bypass a prescribed route

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: oikaista (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: prendre des raccourcis
• Italian: prendere delle scorciatoie

do a less-than-thorough or incomplete job

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: vetää mutkat suoriksi, hutiloida, mennä sieltä mistä aita on matalin, mennä yli siitä mistä aita on matalin, tinkiä laadusta, käyttää helpointa tapaa
• French: (Quebec) couper les coins ronds (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hebrew: עיגל פינות \ עִגֵּל פִּנּוֹת (he)
• Japanese: 手を抜く (ja) (te-wo nuku)
• Polish: iść na skróty
• Westrobothnian:

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