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Glite Dictionary
to cut the cheese

to cut the cheese

1 9.6
To pass gas from your bottom, usually said as a joke
  • idiom
  • NSFW
translation icon : soltar un gas
  • She tried to sneakily cut the cheese while the meeting was going on.

Examples

Synonyms

to pass gas
vsto cut the cheese
  • NSFW
5 5.9

To let gas out from your bottom

is more informal and humorous rather than neutral in tone
to pass wind
vsto cut the cheese
  • UK
1 6.5

To let gas from inside your body out through your bottom

is more informal and humorous than the polite expression

Surface Forms

cut the cheese infinitive
cut the cheese past
cut the cheese past participle
cutting the cheese present participle
cuts the cheese third person singular

Morphology

cut + the + cheese

The idiomatic meaning 'to pass gas' is not derivable from the literal constituents 'cut' and 'cheese' and there is no transparent compositional relation connecting cutting cheese with flatulence. This is a culture-specific euphemism/idiom whose sense is unpredictable for a B1 learner who only knows the component words.

Etymology

Cut the cheese may come from the image of slicing a very strong-smelling cheese: when you cut the cheese, a bad smell suddenly comes out. So the phrase came to mean 'to pass gas'.