cut corners

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

cut corners (third-person singular simple present cuts corners, present participle cutting corners, simple past and past participle cut corners)

1. To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or other rules of the road.
   • 1882, Dan Seffert, quoted in “Half Hours with Dan Seffert”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Volume 39, page 275:

     […] but I believe the old man did not ride fair, as he cut corners and joined in with them again […]

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

   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.

Synonyms

• (do a less-than-thorough job): skimp, take short cuts, follow the path of least resistance, take the easy way out, (slang) half-ass

Translations

bypass a prescribed route

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: oikaista (fi)
• French: prendre des raccourcis
• Italian: prendere delle scorciatoie
• Portuguese: atalhar (pt)

do a less-than-thorough or incomplete job

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 偷工減料／偷工减料 (zh) (tōugōngjiǎnliào)

• Finnish: vetää mutkat suoriksi (fi), hutiloida (fi), mennä sieltä mistä aita on matalin, mennä yli siitä mistä aita on matalin, tinkiä laadusta, käyttää helpointa tapaa
• French: (Quebec) couper les coins ronds (fr)
• Hebrew: עיגל פינות \ עִגֵּל פִּנּוֹת (he)
• Japanese: 手を抜く (ja) (te-wo nuku)
• Polish: iść na skróty
• Portuguese: gambiarrar

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