Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
📉 To reduce 🌳 To fell ⚔️ To bring down 🏃 To stop player
to cut down

to cut down

49 1.9
To make a tree or plant fall by cutting it at the base
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌt daʊn/
translation icon : talar
  • He decided to cut down the old oak tree in his backyard to make space for a new shed.
  • cut down a tree
  • cut down forests

So people cut down trees to make food.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Entire forests had been cut down and burned to make way for the golden-haired crop.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • You can see a set right there, but I want to cut this one down fairly low.

  • I just want to cut down all your trees.

  • So people cut down trees to make food.

    Lex Fridman

  • You know, when I was five, I saw them cut down that tree.

    Double Eagle Ranch (2018)

  • You two are not cutting down that tree.

    Win Win (2011)

  • People begin to burn their furniture or cut down trees in parks for fuel.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • So far, the only solution has been to cut down and remove infested trees.

    Academic text (2000)

  • A man in Fairfax had to cut down a tree, and this baby owl was in it.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Local villagers began to cut down large areas of the forest and began to cultivate there.

    Academic text (2001)

Synonyms

to knock down
vsto cut down
57 3.2

Make a building or wall fall down suddenly

uses severing at the base to bring down plants, not force or explosion
to fell
vsto cut down
16 3.3

To cause something to fall, often by cutting it down

is narrower, focusing on plants and severing their base
to chop down
vsto cut down
12 2.1

To cut through the trunk of a tree so it falls

causes a plant to fall by severing its base specifically

Antonyms

to grow
801 1.0

Plant and care for crops or plants for food

to plant
361 1.0

To put seeds or young plants into the soil so they grow

How Destructive

to clear-cut
  • Specialized
2 6.1
to cut down
49 1.9
to trim
95 2.6
to prune
6 3.4

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

cut + down

The sports sense 'to intercept/stop/tackle' is only partly derivable from the parts: 'down' suggests bringing someone to the ground or defeating them and 'cut' can imply stopping or removing, so there is a motivated, figurative relation. However, the specific action of tackling/intercepting in sports is a specialized, metaphorical extension of those meanings and not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Cut down comes from the simple image of chopping a tree at its base until it falls. You literally cut the trunk and make it go down, so it means 'to make a tree or plant fall'.