to cut corners
23
3.8
- phrasal verb
- /kʌt ˈkɔrnərz/
- Informal
:
tomar atajos
- The result was that many developers simply cut corners, creating the most basic parking lot possible.
- get ahead without cutting corners
Just find ways to cut corners and save money every which way you can.
- Just find ways to cut corners and save money every which way you can.
- These shortcuts I'm trying to offer you, they're not about cutting corners.
- You're in such a hurry that you're prepared to, dare I say, cut corners and go through a stop sign or two.
- And and the rest of the supplement line is just, it's just making high quality stuff and not cutting corners.
- The machinist, the me the machinist now can tell the ways in which me the machinist then was cutting corners.
- I just feel like there are certain things that you can cut corners on and for the most part, skin care for me is not one of them.
- Yeah, don't try to hoodwink me as a viewer, as a human being with it or cut corners and, like, not hire a real person.
- And so I, I sort of, I cut corners, I borrowed ideas left and right when it comes to language design as well as implementation.
- But also, I just didn't want to cut corners.
- But that it's funny that though that always try to cut corners, always try to cut corners.
Examples
-
The contractor was found to cut corners during construction, which resulted in serious safety issues.
-
We're certainly not cutting corners that would put children at risk.
Academic text (2010) -
If you got to cut corners somewhere, I say do it.
-
Just find ways to cut corners and save money every which way you can.
-
So, yeah, I am sure you can understand our need to cut corners around here.
-
The only way they could make real extra money was to go out and cut corners.
-
Her next step is to look at where we have cut corners too much.
Academic text (1994) -
Sometimes, Chinese companies cut corners to meet price expectations of foreign customers.
Academic text (2006) -
It's there online, so we cut corners and assume it's right, end of story.
Blog text (1) -
Other stories involved employee theft, kickbacks to vendors, and cutting corners on product quality.
Academic text (1995)
Synonyms
16
5.8
Use less of something than is needed to save money or time
7
6.8
Give less of something than is needed to save money or effort
Antonyms
How Careful
Surface Forms
Morphology
cut + corners
The literal meanings of 'cut' (to remove/reduce) and 'corners' (edges) give a plausible image of removing parts or taking a shortcut, so an informed guess about 'taking shortcuts' is possible. However the specific sense of doing something cheaply or improperly by skipping steps is a metaphorical extension and not fully predictable for a B1 learner without exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom cut corners comes from the image of people who cut across the corners of streets or fields to save time. So, saying you cut corners today means 'to do something quickly or cheaply by not following all the rules or steps', often with worse results.