to cut back
5
5.5
- phrasal verb
- /kʌt bæk/
- Jargon
:
hacer un flashback
- Should we just cut back to the guy doing the I am crazy?
Examples
-
You go outside, we cut back to her, watching from the doorway.
-
We cut back to the reporter on camera, grim.
Fiction book (1995) -
That should give us a nice two shot and then it cuts back to the bag.
-
We cut back to the poet in vision.
Fiction book (1998) -
We cut back to the gang, who now appear as they did prior to Weed-Vision.
Fiction book (2001) -
The words "as is" are typed in, and we cut back to Barton as he continues typing.
Fiction book (1991) -
The scene cut back to Africa for four minutes on the plight of the poorest societies struggling against an epidemic.
Academic text (2013) -
The theater darkened as the screen cut back to the caballero standing by a campfire, alone under the stars.
Fiction book (1995) -
Cut back to a tight shot of the door as it opens and a very clean-cut, preppy, stockbroker type enters.
Fiction book (1998) -
As the plot thickened, the film cut back to the protagonist's childhood, revealing her motivations.
Synonyms
8
5.3
To suddenly see or feel a past event as if it is happening now
Antonyms
How Far Back
Surface Forms
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 film sense of cut back comes from movie editors who cut the footage and then cut back to an earlier scene or time to show past events. So it means 'to return to an earlier scene or time' in a story.