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to cut in

to cut in

12 4.6
Move suddenly in front of another vehicle leaving little space
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌt ɪn/
translation icon : colarse
  • While driving on the highway, a red car cut in too close, causing me to swerve.

So, for example, you're driving to work in the morning and there's a bit of traffic and someone cuts in front of you.

Examples

  • She was the lady in the station wagon that cut in front of me when I was chasing that van that swiped Jon.

    B-Movie: The Shooting of 'Farmhouse Massacre' (2002)

  • So, for example, you're driving to work in the morning and there's a bit of traffic and someone cuts in front of you.

    Jay Shetty Podcast

  • You just cut in front of us.

    Vacation (2015)

  • I'm angry because these two people cut in front of me, and everyone is letting them get away with it.

    Friends with Money (2006)

  • What I've had it with is when people cut in line at a double drive through.

  • I followed, but a third grader cut in front of me.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The woman who cut in front of me in line was the keynote speaker.

    Blog text (26)

  • The aggressive driver suddenly cut in front of me, leaving no room to brake safely.

  • I was frustrated when another vehicle cut in during rush hour traffic.

Synonyms

to cut in front of
vsto cut in
7 4.0

To move suddenly and rudely in front of someone while waiting or driving

leaves too little space when moving ahead, making the action unsafe

Antonyms

to give way
42 3.3

Move aside or be replaced by something else

How Abrupt

to cut in
12 4.6
squeeze
4 3.0
to merge
192 3.2

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

cut + in

The vehicle sense is partially derivable: 'in' signals movement into space and 'cut' can be metaphorically extended to mean a sharp intrusion, so a learner might guess an insertion into another lane. However, the specific traffic-related consequence (leaving too little space) and the conventionalized abruptness of the maneuver are not fully predictable from the literal words, so prior exposure is typically needed.

Etymology

Cut in comes from the image of a car quickly cutting across another's path, like slicing into a lane, so it means 'to move suddenly in front of another vehicle'.