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Glite Dictionary
↔️ To go through 🌐 To go beyond limits
to cut across

to cut across

4 4.6
To go beyond usual boundaries like age or department
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌt əˈkrɔs/
translation icon : trascender
  • From trade to the environment, from drug policy to education, the issues cut across established bureaucratic boundaries.
  • cut across boundaries
  • cut across lines
  • cut across disciplines

These are platforms which cut across sectors and geographies.

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Examples

  • We are also working as teams to cut across business unit and corporate staff lines.

    Academic text (1996)

  • These are platforms which cut across sectors and geographies.

    Evan Carmichael

  • And half of the country have views which cut across those things in different domains.

    Triggernometry

  • And this is wisdom that cuts across many, many parts of life.

    DoctorRamani

  • This is a pattern that cuts across social situations.

    DoctorRamani

  • And it's just it cuts across different cultural borders.

  • More often than not, these data collection procedures cut across most of the questions being explored.

    Academic text (1992)

  • They really cut across all sectors of society.

  • Is it possible to develop criteria that cut across all views, achieving common ground for judgment?

    Academic text (1990)

  • The new policy cuts across traditional boundaries to promote innovation and collaboration.

Synonyms

pushing boundaries
vsto cut across
  • Informal
3 6.0

Challenging normal limits or rules to try new ideas

goes beyond tradition by disregarding rules without creative intent
to transpass
vsto cut across
  • Archaic
9.9

To go past a limit or cross a border

goes beyond rules and ignores traditional distinctions in a neutral modern sense

Antonyms

to adhere to
79 3.9

To follow rules or instructions

How Boundary-Breaking

to break down
37 3.5
to transcend
  • Formal
101 6.8
to cut across
4 4.6
to straddle
13 5.0
overlap
30 3.9
to confine to
106 4.8

Surface Forms

cut across infinitive
cut across past
cut across past participle
cutting across present participle
cuts across third person singular

Morphology

cut + across

The constituents 'cut' (to slice or traverse) and 'across' (from one side to another) clearly suggest moving through or over a boundary, so learners can infer a basic sense of crossing or spanning. However, the MWE’s abstract extension to ‘disregard or go beyond rules/distinctions’ is a metaphorical shift from the physical meaning and may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Cut across uses the image of a single line that cuts across many areas, ignoring the usual borders between them. So it means 'to go beyond or ignore usual boundaries or groups'.