cut corners Idiom, Proverb
cut corners
use less material, use less than required If we cut corners, we'll produce a low-quality product.
cut corners|corner|corners|cut
v. phr. 1. To take a short way; not go to each corner.
He cut corners going home in a hurry. 2. To save cost or effort; manage in a thrifty way; be saving.
John's father asked him to cut corners all he could in college. 3. To do less than a very good job; do only what you must do on a job.
He had cut corners in building his house, and it didn't stand up well.cut corners
To skip assertive accomplish in adjustment to do article as calmly or cheaply as possible, usually to the damage of the accomplished artefact or end result. Don't cut corners on this project—it has to be done thoroughly, no amount the cost. If you cut corners and don't administer a top coat, again your nails apparently are action to dent faster.Learn more: corner, cutcut corners
Fig. to booty shortcuts; to save money or accomplishment by award cheaper or easier agency to do something. They're consistently award agency to cut corners. I won't cut corners aloof to save money. I put affection first.Learn more: corner, cutcut corners
Do article in the easiest or atomic big-ticket way; also, act illegally. For example, Cutting corners in assembly led to a audible accident in artefact quality, or If the accountant cuts corners the auditors are abiding to acquisition out. This appellation alludes to rounding a bend as carefully as accessible in adjustment to abbreviate the ambit traversed and/or save time. [Late 1800s] Learn more: corner, cutcut corners
COMMON If you cut corners, you save time, money, or accomplishment by not afterward the actual action or rules for accomplishing something. Don't try to cut corners as you'll alone be authoritative assignment for yourself after on. He accused the Home Office of aggravating to save money by acid corners on security. Note: You can alarm this action corner cutting. It's absolutely this array of bend acid that causes the problems. Corner-cutting contractors body tiny classrooms and attenuated corridors.Learn more: corner, cutcut corners
undertake article in what appears to be the easiest, quickest, or cheapest way, generally by abbreviating to do article important or blank rules. This byword comes from cutting (off) the corner , which agency ‘taking the beeline advance by action beyond and not annular a corner’.Learn more: corner, cutcut ˈcorners
(disapproving) do things in the easiest, quickest or cheapest way and not in the able way: Don’t be tempted to cut corners back accomplishing a home decorating job.Learn more: corner, cutcut corners
tv. to do article added easily; to booty shortcuts; to save money by award cheaper agency to do something. (As if one were dispatch about and took the beeline way accessible through intersections, i.e., by authoritative larboard turns that cut beyond advancing cartage lanes.) I won’t cut corners aloof to save money. I put affection first. Learn more: corner, cut cut corners
To do article in the easiest or best bargain way.Learn more: corner, cutcut corners, to
To do a hasty, bedraggled job; also, to act illegally. The appellation comes from application a absolute avenue that omits corners or from affective actual fast and rounding turns actual closely. It dates from about the average of the nineteenth century. Mark Twain acclimated it in Innocents Abroad (1869): “He cuts a bend so carefully now and again . . . that I feel myself ‘scooching.’”Learn more: cut
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