Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
💸 To reduce 🎬 To return (film) ✂️ To trim plants
to cut back

to cut back

4 3.9
To trim stems or branches so a plant grows better
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌt bæk/
translation icon : podar
  • She's either planting for spring or cutting back for winter.
  • cut back plants
  • cut back the foliage
  • cut back perennials

Examples

  • People often ask me about which plants to cut back in autumn and when to cut them back.

    Blog text (22)

  • Most perennials can be cut back in the fall, but wait until the first killing frost.

    Blog text (21)

  • I recently cut this whole thing back hard because the back half of the plant died.

  • In fall, I cut them back.

    Academic text (2014)

  • In the fall, I dug them up, cut them back, and set them in pots on the cellar floor to keep for the next year.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • And now that we've cut it back in the fall, now we can come back and we can properly prune.

  • I cut back Salvia, and sometimes in a milder winter, it will bloom a bit!

    Blog text (22)

  • I advise waiting until a killing freeze to cut back perennials and pull out summer annuals.

    Blog text (22)

  • Cut peony foliage back to the ground if it hasn't been already, Upham says.

    Blog text (11)

  • In spring, gardeners often cut back dead branches to promote new growth.

Synonyms

to trim
vsto cut back
95 2.6

Cut something to make it smaller or neater

adds the aim of promoting healthy development and controlling overall size
to clip
vsto cut back
51 1.6

To cut hair or plants shorter with scissors

is primarily about encouraging plant health and managing growth size
to lop
vsto cut back
8 4.2

Cut off branches to make a tree or plant tidy and healthy

covers careful pruning focused on plant health and size management
to prune
vsto cut back
6 3.4

Cut branches and stems from a plant to help it grow and keep its shape

focuses more on encouraging healthy development and controlling plant size
to pinch
vsto cut back
5 6.1

Cut off the tip of a plant shoot to make it grow more branches

is broader, covering overall size control and healthy development
to trim down
vsto cut back
3 3.4

To make something smaller by cutting or removing parts

is specifically about cutting plants to encourage health and control size
to crop
vsto cut back
1 2.3

To cut back plants to make them grow better

is aimed at shaping plants for health and size rather than harvesting
to trim back
vsto cut back
1 3.4

Make a thing smaller by cutting or removing parts

emphasizes healthy development and correct growth as well as size control
to prune the bush
vsto cut back
3.3

Cut back the branches of a bush to help it grow and keep its shape

applies to plants generally rather than only to bushes

Antonyms

to grow
801 1.0

Plant and care for crops or plants for food

to make grow
2 2.9

To help something become bigger or better over time

How Much

to lop
8 4.2
to cut back
4 3.9
to trim
95 2.6
to prune
6 3.4

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

cut + back

The sense 'to return to an earlier scene' is partially inferable because 'back' signals returning and 'cut' can mean change or move (as in editing 'cut to'), so a learner who knows the constituents could plausibly guess a switch back. However, the specific film-editing usage of 'cut' (and the phrasal pattern 'cut back to') is somewhat specialized and not fully predictable at B1 without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

The verb cut back in gardening comes from the literal act of using shears to cut away old or overgrown back branches so the plant can grow healthy new shoots. So it means 'to trim or prune' a plant to control its size and help new growth.