to make the cut
31
4.8
- phrasal verb
:
quedar seleccionado
- If you want to be part of the team, you need to make the cut during tryouts.
- failed to make the cut
- didn't make the cut
- never made the cut
They started narrowing it down and I kept making the cut.
- They started narrowing it down and I kept making the cut.
- So we interviewed a lot of people and they didn't make the cut.
- This skirt again has been on the chopping block in the last few clear outs and it's just made the cut every time.
- The ones who didn't learn didn't make the cut anymore, so they have learned what you value in terms of pretty candid coaching and evaluation.
- And right in your research, in your research for doing the book, what what really out there ideas did you come across that didn't make the cut?
- But I try and I keep making the cut and I keep getting more and more into it.
- OK, if it didn't really make the cut, but something really cool happened when we left a shoe and apple cider vinegar for five months.
Examples
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I mean, who makes the cut?
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If you're lucky, and you make the cut, you will be joining a sisterhood and making best friends for life.
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But I try and I keep making the cut and I keep getting more and more into it.
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But, uh, he ended up not making the cut.
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Half of you will make the cut.
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Just glad you two made the cut.
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Did you make the cut?
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I decided to enter a recent game design and failed to make the cut as well.
Blog text (25) -
I didn't make the cut, though.
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Twelve finalists made the cut, including the Magic 8 Ball and Fisher-Price Corn Popper.
Blog text (5)
Synonyms
377
3.2
To pass a test or be chosen in a selection
Antonyms
How Selected
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to be chosen' can be linked to 'make' (to reach/succeed) plus 'cut' understood as a dividing line or selection threshold, so there is a clear compositional relation. However, the specific use of 'cut' to mean a selection cutoff is an extended, idiomatic sense that a B1 learner who only knows the basic meanings of 'cut' and 'make' may not predict, making the expression partially but not fully transparent.
Etymology
The phrase make the cut may come from the idea of cutting people from a group; imagine a list where those who are cut are removed, so if you make the cut you stay on the list. That's why it means 'to be chosen' or 'to pass a selection'.