to cut down
65
2.7
- phrasal verb
:
reducir
- To improve his health, he decided to cut down on sugary drinks.
- cut down on drinking
- cut down the amount
- cut down the number
And so my drinking was cut down, but it was still a lot.
- And so my drinking was cut down, but it was still a lot.
- So you'd want to lower taxes gradually and also cut down on spending bit by bit.
- But then the rest they just cut down too far.
- It's to cut down on bacteria in the water, right?
- And I feel like avoiding, you know, meat and cheese could help cut down on food waste.
- That doesn't mean that we won't ever get angry, but we can really cut down on it quite a bit.
- One of the consequences of one kind of reaction is cutting down on education.
- We could use this tool to seriously cut down on comment spam on YouTube site wide.
- We've been looking into scavenging this part to try to cut down costs.
Examples
-
It's to cut down on bacteria in the water, right?
-
The buildings also cut down on electricity by taking advantage of natural light as much as possible.
Academic text (2005) -
I mean, it cuts down on costs, right?
-
I mean... you gotta cut down on the noise factor real quick.
-
We may be able to cut down on some anger, right.
-
Right and we gotta cut down on some of these house hold expenses.
-
No, thank you, I'm trying to cut down.
-
And, you know, batch cooking can also really help to cut down on costs as well.
-
When food and oil prices dropped, the Saudi government cut down on financial support in order to avoid excess production.
Academic text (2015) -
As President Truman said, "We have to cut down on the cost of living."
Synonyms
∞
2.3
To remove parts or make something shorter, for example text
∞
1.6
To make something smaller in amount, size, or number
201
3.7
To become less in size, importance, or value
181
2.8
Become less in amount or value
169
2.9
To reduce how much you buy and use to save money and be healthier
95
2.6
Cut something to make it smaller or neater
89
3.0
Make an amount or level lower
79
3.7
To reduce something a lot, for example prices or jobs
75
3.2
Use less of something to save money or be healthier
45
2.3
Make something shorter, for example an article, skirt, or route
18
3.9
Make a price or amount a little smaller
17
5.7
To make something smaller by removing small parts
10
5.1
To make a list or group smaller by removing items over time
9
4.4
Make something smaller by removing parts you do not need
9
3.6
To make something shorter while keeping the important parts
8
4.0
To make something smaller in size or amount
8
4.1
Make something smaller, like a product or living space
8
7.0
To shorten something by cutting off a part, often the end
3
3.4
To make something smaller by cutting or removing parts
3
4.3
Reduce something to a lower level, for example power or voltage
3
5.9
To make something smaller gradually by cutting or wearing it away
1
4.3
Make something smaller or cheaper to save money
1
3.4
Make a thing smaller by cutting or removing parts
1
5.1
To become slowly smaller or less until almost nothing remains
1
7.5
Make something shorter in time or length while keeping its main parts
1
8.4
To make something smaller so it uses less space or time
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
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 for 'reduce' comes from the idea of cutting off parts to make something smaller. If you cut pieces down, you lower the total, so it means 'to reduce the amount or size'.