Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cut corners

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.03 in modern English

Syllables: cut -corners
IPA

14

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

2

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or other rules of the road.

verb

To do a less-than-thorough or incomplete job; to do something poorly; to take inappropriate shortcuts.

Example Sentences

"[…] but I believe the old man did not ride fair, as he cut corners and joined in with them again […]"
"The guy who built the fence cut corners when sinking the posts, and the fence fell over in the last storm."
"Do you know why Wendy's has square burgers? Because they don't cut corners."
"To obtain that data, tech companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta have cut corners, ignored corporate policies and debated bending the law, according to an examination by The New York Times."

Inflected Forms

cuts corners (present, singular) cutting corners (participle, present)

Synonyms

skimp take short cuts follow the path of least resistance take the easy way out half-ass

Questions

What does cut corners mean?: To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or other rules of the road.

How to pronounce cut corners

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “cut corners”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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