to cut the dead weight

5.7

Remove people or things that are unnecessary and slow progress

phrasal verb

Informal

: eliminar lastre

The team decided to cut the dead weight by letting go of underperforming employees.

Examples

To move forward faster, we need to cut the dead weight of unnecessary meetings.
In order to improve efficiency, the manager plans to cut the dead weight from the project.
You point out that cutting the dead weight is important, and it is.

Blog text (1)

Synonyms

to prune

vsto cut the dead weight

2 4.2

To remove things you do not need to make something smaller or work better

removes items that slow progress rather than only improving quality

to filter out the dross

vsto cut the dead weight

Informal

7.2

To remove unwanted things so only useful ones remain

removes unnecessary people or things specifically for faster progress

Antonyms

to include

∞ 1.0

To make a person or thing part of something larger

to retain

236 3.4

To keep having something such as a job or possession

How Thorough

to eliminate

NSFW

502 3.4

to dismiss

70 3.3

to cut the dead weight

Informal

5.7

to prune

2 4.2

to trim

95 2.6

Surface Forms

cut the dead weight infinitive

cut the dead weight past

cut the dead weight past participle

cutting the dead weight present participle

cuts the dead weight third person singular

Morphology

cut + the + dead + weight

The verb 'cut' (to remove) plus the noun phrase 'dead weight' (a metaphorical burden where 'dead' = not contributing and 'weight' = burden) allows a learner to infer the general idea of removing something that slows progress. However, 'dead weight' is a metaphorical/idiomatic use of the constituents and the exact sense is not fully predictable without prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Cut the dead weight may come from the image of people on a boat or carrying a heavy load choosing to cut away a useless, heavy dead weight that slows them down so they can move faster. So today cut the dead weight means 'to remove people or things that are unnecessary or slowing progress'.