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Expressions with Cut Course

Video 1: Expressions with Cut - Part 1

Glossary

cut up: to criticize something or someone severely

cut back (on): to reduce the amount or use of something

cut down: 1.) to reduce the amount or use of something; 2.) to insult someone in

public

cut off: 1.) to stop something from working or flowing; 2.) to interrupt someone

from talking

cut out: 1.) to stop doing something; 2.) to remove someone or something

cut in(to): 1.) to move ahead of someone in a line; 2.) to interrupt someone or

something

cut through: 1.) to move across an area as a shortcut; 2.) to get quickly through

something that blocks or slows one down

Sample Sentences

1. After a terrible on-court performance due to her poor attitude, the athlete was

cut up by her coach in the locker room.

2. If you are having financial problems, you should cut back on your spending.

3. Frank needs to cut down on his sugar intake if he wants to maintain his

fitness.

4. Angry citizens cut down the mayor during his speech in front of city hall. They

wouldn’t stop shouting insults.

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 5. Make sure you cut off the electricity before replacing the wires, otherwise you

might electrocute yourself.

6. Yasmine cut me off before I could finish what I was saying.

7. I’m tired of hearing you complain. Cut it out!

8. After failing to contribute, Ian was cut out of the group by the other members.

9. You should always wait your turn. Don’t cut in line.

10. If anyone has any questions during the presentation, feel free to cut in and

ask.

11. We had to cut through the train station to get to the post office.

12. The sound of the referee’s whistle cut through the noise of the crowd.

Vocabulary Questions
1. Talk about a time when you or someone you know was cut up by another

person.

2. What do you need to cut back on?

3. Talk about a time when you saw someone get cut down in public.

4. Describe a time when you or someone you know got cut off from something.

5. What would you like to cut out of your life or society?

6. Can you remember a time when someone cut into a line (or queue) you were

standing in? How did you feel?

7. Talk about a time when you had to cut through something.

Transcript

Hi there everybody. In this video, I want to explore phrasal verbs with the verb, cut.
Let's get started. Of course, cut is what we do with a knife or a pair of scissors. We
slice into something. We cut it apart. Now the first phrasal verb I want to introduce to
you is cut up. So literally when you cut something up, you make it into little pieces
with a knife or some scissors. Okay? We do this all the time, we cut up food in the
kitchen, we cut up paper with scissors. But figuratively, cut up has a number of
different meanings but I'm going to introduce the one meaning that I think is most
useful. And that is to criticize someone or some thing, very harshly, very severely. For
example, let's imagine that you're a student and you work very hard on writing an
essay. And you take it into your teacher and he cuts it up. He criticizes it. He points

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out all of the different things that you did wrong and he says nothing positive about
it. And it makes you very upset. He really cut up your essay. Another example might
be, a little boy, he's a child. Maybe he's five or six years old and he's at a birthday
party and he misbehaves. He causes other children to cry. It embarrasses his mother
and in the car ride home, she cuts him up, right? She criticizes him, she scolds him
and it makes him feel bad about what he's done, but she waits until the car ride
home to cut him up like that. So that's the meaning, the figurative meaning of that
phrasal verb.

Now, there's another phrasal verb that you'll hear frequently. And that is, cut back.
To cut back or sometimes cut back on, you'll hear. And to cut back means to simply
reduce the amount of something, right? The usage of it, the amount that's there. In a
literal sense, we cut back on weeds if they're growing too much in the garden. We cut
them back. If a bush grows too much, you'll cut the outside part of it and cut it back
so it's smaller. And so that literal meaning can be used figuratively to reduce things
in our lives, right? To make them smaller. For example, if you are overweight, you
need to cut back on your caloric intake, the number of calories that you intake. If
your eyes are really tired, right, because you're looking into the computer screen all
the time, then you need to cut back on your screen time. Cut back, right, cut back.
Don't do it so much, you need to cut back on it.

Now, there's another one that has the same meaning and that's cut down on. To cut
down on has the same meaning as cut back on. Okay? Actually cut down on has
other meanings as well but one of the meanings is the same. It means to reduce the
amount of something. So if you're overweight, you need to cut down on your
calories. If your eyes are tired, you need to cut down on your screen time. Now you
can also, you know, literally cut down means to just cut something so that it falls
over. So we literally cut down a tree with an axe or with a saw, we can make it topple,
fall to the ground. We cut it down. Okay? We cut it down.

Now you can cut someone down, this is another usage. When you cut a person
down, well, it could mean that you kill them like a soldier cuts down his enemy on
the field of battle, but that's not the one that I want to introduce to you. I want you to
know about the meaning of cut someone down as a way to insult them. When you
speak very harshly about someone and you insult them, you make them upset and
angry especially if it's in a very public way where other people are present and
they're listening and watching, you can cut someone down. So you're just insulting
another person.

So for example, let's say, the same teacher, right, that cut up his student for the
essay, that that student wrote, maybe there's another student in class who's always
coming in late. And little by little throughout the semester, the teacher starts to get
annoyed and frustrating, and eventually, right, one morning, he's not in a good
mood and the kid comes in late and he snaps, he gets very angry and he cuts that kid
down in front of the other students by, you know, insulting him and saying that, you

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know, you're lazy and you need to get your act together and you're not focused and
it makes the kid feel really bad. The teacher cuts that kid down in front of the other
students. The same might happen on a sports team. Let's say there's a coach who
has noticed that one of the players who's actually one of the star players on the
team is being very selfish and is not being a good team player. And so one day at
halftime in the game, the players are back in the locker room and the coach cuts that
player down. And you know, it kind of insults him and shocks him by, you know, right
in front of the other players saying how selfish he is and how he's not a team player.
Oh, and the player feels really embarrassed. The coach has cut that player down for
his selfishness and bad attitude like that.

Okay. Now cut off is another common phrasal verb with the verb cut. And literally to
cut something off means that you remove it from a larger hole. So we can cut off the
limb of a tree. You can cut off your arm, if you have an accident, your arm could be
cut off, right? It's separated from your body. Now, figuratively, we can use this in life
to describe sort of something that we stop from working or from flowing or moving.
Let me give you a few examples. Let's say you don't pay your electricity bill and you
haven't paid it for two months. Well, you'll find very quickly that your electricity will
soon be cut off. The company will stop it from being delivered to your house
because you're not paying the bill, they will cut off your electricity. We use this a lot
with money, the flow of money. So for example, a parent who pays for his or her
child's university education, and during that time is giving the child monthly stipends
to cover food and rent and things like that. And then when the student is 22 years
old, the student graduates from the university and the parent says, that's it, I'm
going to cut you off, right? You're going to get cut off because we can't pay for you
anymore. That's enough, we're going to cut you off. If you're drinking at a bar and
you drink too much, the bartender might cut you off, right? They'll stop serving you
alcohol, okay?

Now, another meaning of cut someone off is completely different. And that just
means to interrupt them when they're speaking. So for example, if I am telling a joke
in a group of people and Dan suddenly cuts me off and starts talking about a
completely different topic, I never got to finish my joke. He completely cut me off. He
interrupted me and I wasn't able to finish what I was saying, okay? So that's, has
anyone ever cut you off when you're speaking? It's not a pleasant feeling. Dan
doesn't cut me off, don't worry.

Another phrasal verb that you'll hear very frequently, very often is cut out, cut out.
Now, literally cut out means to take a pair of scissors and let's say, for example, cut a
shape out. I remember doing this when I was a preschool student and in elementary
school, we'd often have to cut out different shapes and do something with it, right?
Cut out a triangle from a piece of paper. Or a doctor, if you have a skin tumor, the
doctor will cut it out. She'll just take it right out. She'll use a scalpel and she'll cut out
the tumor and remove it, okay? So that's literally what cut out means. But
figuratively, we can use this to mean, stop doing something, like completely stopped

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doing it. And we'll often use this as a command. Like, cut it out, cut it out, don't do
that anymore. Stop doing it. My daughter was kind of goofing around with me,
playing with me the other day. And she was poking me in the shoulder and in the
belly, she kept poking me. And I said, hey, stop doing that. Don't do that right now.
And eventually I got frustrated and I said, hey, cut it out, will you? Cut it out. Stop
messing with me. Cut it out. Stop doing it. If your friends are being very noisy at night
and you know that it's bothering the neighbors, you can say to your friends, hey
guys, cut it out. You're being too loud. Cut it out. Someone's going to call the police,
they're going to complain. If you're a smoker, now is not a good time to smoke.
We're in the midst of a Corona virus pandemic and it attacks the lungs. So you need
strong, healthy lungs. You should cut out smoking, you should cut it out. Stop doing
it completely. What do you need to cut out in your life?

Another meaning of cut out is just to remove something or someone even. For
example, let's say this guy, Julian, for health reasons, he decides that he is going to
become a vegan. So he is going to cut out all animal products from his life, not only
what he eats, but what he uses. He's going to cut it out for health purposes, spiritual
health, mental health, physical health. He thinks it's healthy. He's going to do it. He's
going to cut out animal products. I know a guy named Larry who had a terrible
relationship with his father and, for many years and they didn't talk to each other for
many years. And he just disliked his father. And I think his father really disliked him.
Well, when his father died, Larry found out that his father had cut him out of the will.
Meaning, his brothers and sisters received family inheritance money but Larry
received nothing because his father cut him out of the will. So that's cut out.

Cut in, the opposite. Cut out, cut in. To cut in literally means to slice or carve into.
Sometimes you'll hear into, cut into or cut in. And one of the figurative meanings that
we use, when someone cuts in, they don't take a knife and cut into you, but they
might take their body and move ahead of you in the line, okay? Or a queue as the
British people say. So one time, actually, quite recently, I was standing in line to buy a
train ticket at the station. And this rarely happens in Japan, rarely happens. But some
woman just came and she cut in right in front of me. I couldn't believe it, that that
almost never happens. And I didn't say anything, I was just shocked that she cut in
line. She cut in front of me. She cut in and I just let it happen. But yeah, she cut in.
Has anyone ever cut in line that you were standing in? It happens. It does happen.

Another meaning of cut in is to interrupt someone or something that cuts in. So for
example, I know a woman named Satoko and she's a nice person but, she has this
annoying habit of cutting in to conversations that you're having with other people.
So if she's around and she hears you talking to someone, she'll cut in the
conversation, she'll interrupt you and she'll start talking as well. It's a little bit
different than the example I gave you before about cutting someone off, because
that's a little bit more extreme. When you cut someone off, not only do you interrupt
them when they're speaking, but you take over the conversation and you don't allow
them to finish. That's different. Cutting in is not a complete interruption necessarily.

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It just means you're joining the conversation often abruptly. Okay? So don't, you got
to be careful about cutting in but definitely don't cut someone off. If you're watching
television. Sometimes if especially if it's an interesting program, I don't like it when
commercials suddenly cut in and I have, I'm forced to watch the commercial, when I
really want to be watching the program. The commercials are annoying because they
cut in to my viewing experience.

All right. A few more here. Cut through is the, actually the last one that I want to
introduce. To cut through. Now, literally this means to penetrate by cutting. So for
example, the thieves use the blow torch to cut through the metal door on the safe in
the bank, like the bank robbers, they use the metal torch to cut through it. Or maybe
prisoners use some kind of makeshift cutters or knife to cut through the fence or cut
through the barbed wire, right, to get through it. So that's kind of the literal meaning
of the phrasal verb. But it does have some other meanings. One is to move across an
area. Generally for the purposes of a shortcut.

So for example, if you're driving your car down a main street downtown and
suddenly there's a huge traffic jam because of an accident. Well, one way to deal
with that is to cut through some small streets or alleys in your car, to save time,
right? It's a shortcut. Otherwise you're going to wait for a long time, in the traffic jam.
It's better to cut through the side streets to get to where you want to go. When I was
a university student, we had this big library right in the middle of campus and you
have to walk around it, right? You have to walk around it to get to the buildings on
the other side. But, some students would cut through, right through the library. They
would check in and go out the other side. It was a shortcut. You're not really
supposed to do it, but a lot of students did. They cut through the library to get to the
classrooms on the other side.

But now cut through also has another meaning that we can use. And that is to get
quickly through something that blocks you or slows you down. So for example, a
good interrogator, a police interrogator has techniques to use to cut through the lies
and get to the truth of the suspected criminal, right? They have ways of doing it. They
can cut through directly to the truth. I just watched a football match between
Manchester City and Southampton, two English premier league teams. And no,
actually I think it was Manchester United not Manchester City, I can't remember
which one I said. But anyway, Manchester United cut through the Southampton
defense very easily, like a knife through butter and they won nine to nothing. They
cut through that defense.

A good therapist, if you have a problem and you want to talk about your problem, a
good therapist or maybe a spiritual guide or teacher, they can cut through your
confusion to the heart of the problem and give you insight, right? They can cut right
through all that confusion that you have or whatever's causing the problem, they can
cut through to the heart of it.

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Okay. Those are phrasal verbs with cut. I hope you found them useful. Please try to
use them and that'll improve your ability to communicate accurately and say exactly
what it is that you want to say. Okay. See you in the next video.

Video 2: Expressions with Cut - Part 2

Glossary

cut out for something: to be naturally suitable for something

cut from the same cloth: similar in many ways

a cut above the rest: of higher quality or ability than others

cut and dried: clear, simple, prearranged and unchangeable

cut the mustard: to perform at an acceptable standard

make the cut: to qualify for a selection process

cut a long story short: to skip details and get straight to the point

Sample Sentences

1. Since the sight of blood makes him sick, Victor decided that he wasn’t cut out

to be a doctor.

2. When it comes to their traditional views on marriage, Liam and Oliver are cut

from the same cloth.

3. Mei Ling is the most talented violinist I have ever heard. Her skills are a cut

above the rest.

4. Although it appears to be a simple problem, the solution isn’t so cut and

dried. It is actually rather complex.

5. Amazon.com no longer sells products from that company. The quality of their

products didn’t cut the mustard with customers.

6. Willie came home early from football tryouts. He didn’t make the cut, so he

was disappointed.

7. Mr. Davis has been having many problems at work over the past year. And to

cut a long story short, he’s now out of a job.

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Vocabulary Questions

1. What do you think you are (or were) cut out for?

2. Talk about two people who are similar in many ways. Explain why they are cut

from the same cloth.

3. Talk about someone or something that is of higher quality than others. In

what way are they a cut above the rest?

4. Talk about a problem you (or someone you know) solved that had a cut and

dried solution. Alternatively, talk about the solution to a problem that seemed

simple at first, but turned out not to be so cut and dried.

5. Talk about a time when someone or something didn’t cut the mustard.

6. Talk about a time when you (or someone you know) didn’t make the cut

during a selection process.

7. Tell us a story. And rather than give us all the details, get straight to the point

and use the expression, to cut a long story short.

Transcript

Okay, in this video, I'm going to talk about some very useful expressions with the
verb cut. And the first one is to be cut out for something, cut out. So if I'm taking a
pair of scissors and I cut out a shape from a piece of paper, what can I use that
shape for? It depends on what I'm making or what I'm trying to do. So what were you
cut out for in a figurative sense? So when you're cut out for something, it means
you're kind of naturally suitable for something. For example, I really feel at home as
a teacher. I really feel like I was born to teach; it just, it suits me. And so I feel that I
was cut out for teaching. Not everybody's cut out for teaching; you have to be
patient, you have to really, you know, kind of listen really well to other people. You
have to want to help them. And you have to be, you have to come up with creative
strategies, and not everybody's cut out for that. People are cut out for different
things. I feel like I've been cut out, or I am cut out for living abroad outside my own
country. For some people, that's not an easy thing to do, but I'm cut out for it. I like
the challenge. I enjoy being in a different culture and dealing with different
languages and different ways of doing things. I'm cut out for that.

When I was a child, my father wanted me to play baseball, but I just didn't feel cut
out for it. I didn't like it. I wasn't very good at it. When I was a very young man, I

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started working as a research scientist. I was thinking about becoming a research
scientist, but then I realized I really wasn't cut out for it. The lifestyle of a research
scientist, it wasn't for me. I wasn't cut out for it. What are you cut out for? What
comes naturally to you that you're good at? That's what you're cut out for.

The next one is cut from the same cloth. So literally, you imagine a big roll of cloth
or some kind of textile or material. And someone comes along like a tailor and
makes a jacket and some pants and a dress. And it's all cut from the same cloth.
Meaning it's the same color, it has the same pattern, the same texture the same
quality about it. All of those items of clothing have been cut and created from the
same cloth. That's the literal meaning of this. So imagine that figuratively, and it
means that two things or more are very, very similar in many ways. For example, let's
say at your place of employment in your work there are two people who have very
extreme political views and they like to talk about that at lunchtime, for example, or
before and after meetings they like to do talk about their extreme political views. You
can say they're cut from the same cloth. They're not the same as everybody else, but
they are very similar in their extreme views. When it comes to politics, they're cut
from the same cloth.

I recently started watching a; I think it was a series on Netflix. I think it was Netflix.
Anyway, it's a drama that takes place at a different historical place in time. And it
reminded me a lot of Game of Thrones. Even though it was in a completely, it's a
different sort of scenario and a different place and a different time it takes place in a
totally different place, but it's cut from the same cloth. It's that same type of
storylines that are happening in the story. It reminded me a lot of Game of Thrones.
So I feel that those two dramas are cut from the same cloth.

Kids these days, right? They're so different than their grandparents. They are just not
cut from the same cloth. So you'll hear this expressed in the negative as well. They're
not cut from the same cloth. They're very, very different.

The next one is a cut above the rest. A cut above the rest. You can probably guess
at the meaning of this. Let's start with a more literal meaning. I guess if you're a beef
eater, you'll know that Philemon Yung is a certain cut of the animal that is thought to
be of higher quality when it comes to just eating than other parts of the cow or the
animal. And so it's a cut above the rest, and that's why it's more expensive because
it's more highly valued. So a cut above the rest, if we describe a person or a thing as
being a cut above the rest, it means it is of higher quality or higher ability than
others.

So Theodore, a guy named Theodore he is a first-class actor. And his performances

are a cut above the rest, right? They're better than everyone else. A woman named
Tricia. She was hired for a position that she interviewed for, and many people
interviewed for the same position but, the employers hired her because they
thought that she was a cut above the rest. She was of higher quality, of higher ability

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than all the rest of the people. She was a cut above the rest, and they offered her the
job. The soccer player or football player Ronaldo, like him or not. He is well known
and very famous for his striking skills and has the ability to put the ball in the back of
the net. And he's a cut above the rest. Who do you know, that's a cut above the rest?

The next one you'll hear frequently, and it's cut and dried, cut and dried. So literally,
if you imagine, I don't know, taking some flowers that you cut in the garden and you
dry them in the sun. Once they're cut and dried, that's it. They're not going to
change. You can keep them for many, many years, same with maybe fruit. If you pick
some grapes and you dry them in the sun, they turn into raisins, and raisins you can
keep them a long time and eat them months, possibly even years later, no problem.
It's cut and dry; it's not going to change. So in a figurative way, we use cut and dried
to describe a situation. A situation that is very clear, very simple. It's almost
prearranged; it's not going to change. It's unchangeable. And it's often just boring is
nothing to talk about. It's just cut and dried.

Let me try to give you a few examples. A solution that is tried and true is a cut and
dried solution. It's not going to change; it's very simple. There's nothing to talk about.
It always works. It's cut and dried. An explanation that someone gives you might be a
cut and dried explanation. It's very simple. It's very clear. It's straightforward. It's not
going to change. There's nothing to talk about. If you go to a doctor who is very
thorough, maybe she plans your surgery in such a way that's cut and dried. It leaves
nothing to chance. There's nothing to talk about. This is the procedure we're going to
use. It's cut and dried, no discussion. And it's boring there's nothing to talk about
anyway. And you'll hear this in the negative as well. So about things that, for
example, appear to be simple, they appear to be very clear, but in fact, they're not so
cut and dried.

For example, you might see a couple, and every time you see them, they're always
happy, they're always smiling, they look like they get along, but actually, the nature
of their relationship is not so cut and dried. There's a lot that happens when you're
not around that you don't see; it's not cut and dried. It's not so cut and dried. So
think about that. When you hear this and try to use it.

The next one is to cut the mustard, cut the mustard. Now that might be a hard one
to guess. As you know, mustard is a food, a condiment specifically that's made from
the seed of a mustard plant. It's often yellow or brown in color, and it has a sharp
taste to it. We put it on sandwiches and meats and things like that. But this is an
interesting one. You cut the mustard; to cut the mustard simply means to perform at
an acceptable level at an acceptable standard of proficiency. Does it cut the
mustard? Does he cut the mustard? Does she cut the mustard or not? Is he
performing at an acceptable level or not? So let's imagine, well, let's go back to
Ronaldo. He's a cut above the rest, always has been, but, he's aging, he's getting
older he's probably in his mid-thirties. I don't know. But you know, at some point, at
some point, he will no longer cut the mustard when it comes to his physical abilities

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because he's aging. He won't be as fast; he'll have the experience but will his physical
ability continue to cut the mustard to remain at an acceptable level of performance?

The boss Ms. Walters, right? She's a strict boss, and she just fired her new assistant
that she hired two weeks ago because that assistant wasn't cutting the mustard. She
was unhappy with him. He wasn't cutting the mustard. She felt he had to be let go.
She cut him loose. And then there's another one.

To make the cut is another expression you'll hear. And this actually you'll hear both.
You'll hear make the cut and miss the cut. So they are actually opposites. They have
opposite meanings. When you make the cut, it means that you qualify in some sort
of selection process. So, for example, when it comes to sports, a guy named Pedro,
his son, wants to play on the basketball team, and he tries out for the high school
varsity team, but he doesn't make the cut, and he's really disappointed. When it
comes to getting hired for a new job, you might have an impressive CV, but if you're
trying to work for an international company and you're English, doesn't cut the
mustard, then you might not make the cut. You might not make the cut. You might
not qualify for the next round of interviews, for example. They'll see your CV, but
when they see your English level, you won't make the cut like this. So your English
doesn't cut the mustard.

So finally, to cut a long story short, you'll hear this expression. You'll also hear
make a long story short. To make a long story short or to cut a long story short
simply means to skip all the details in any kind of story or something you want to say
and just go straight to the most important points. Cut out all the details. So for
example, I could tell you the story of, like how I met my wife and all the things we did
together and then how we got married eventually. But you know what? I'll just, let
me cut. Let me just cut a long story short and say, I met her 25 years ago, and after
dating for a few years, we happily got married. There, I cut a long story short.

Let's talk about a guy named Alex. Alex, for years he worked at a company, just a
company man doing his job in the office, but he had dreams, he had dreams of
becoming an entrepreneur. And one day, he quit. So to cut a long story short, now
he's the CEO of his own company, like that. So anytime you just want to get straight
to the point, the important point, you can cut a long story short or make a long story
short.

All right. That brings us to the end of this video. Please, if you have questions, ask us,
and we'll give you more examples.

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Video 3: Expressions with Cut - Part 3

Glossary

cut (someone) some slack: to be less critical toward someone because you know

they are in a difficult situation

cut (something or someone) loose: to end a relationship with someone or

something, often abruptly

cut (someone) down to size: to criticize someone to show them that they are

less important than they believe

have (one’s) work cut out for (one): to be faced with a large and difficult task

cut (one’s) teeth on (something): to gain a lot of experience at something when one

was younger

cut (one’s) losses: to quit or withdraw from a losing situation

cut off (one’s) nose to spite (one’s) face: to harm oneself in the process of trying

to harm another person

Sample Sentences

1. Austin’s mother died over the weekend, so we should cut him some slack

this month when it comes to taking time off work.

2. Sophia’s boyfriend wouldn’t stop being verbally abusive to her, so she

eventually cut him loose. She has a new boyfriend now.

3. Ryan is not nearly as smart and talented as he thinks he is. It’s just a matter of

time before someone cuts him down to size.

4. With the many challenging problems facing the country, the new president

has her work cut out for her.

5. Now a world-famous soccer player, Paulo cut his teeth on the dirt fields of

the favelas in Rio.

6. Ricardo’s business is no longer earning a profit. It’s time that he cut his losses

and sell it soon.

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 7. Frustrated with his attitude, Janella fired her best salesman. Now sales are

lower than ever. She has cut off her nose to spite her face.

Vocabulary Questions

1. Talk about a time when you or someone you know was cut some slack.

2. Talk about a time when you or someone you know was cut loose.

3. Talk about a time when you or someone you know was cut down to size.

4. Talk about a time when you (or someone you know) had your work cut out

for you.

5. Describe a time in your life when you (or someone you know) gained a lot of

initial experience at something using the expression, I cut my teeth on ______.

6. Talk about a time when you (or someone you know) had to cut your losses.

7. Can you share an example (real or fabricated) of someone who cut his nose

off to spite his face?

Transcript

Hi everybody. In this video, I want to explore more expressions with cut. All of these
are useful. So pay attention. Here we go. The first is to cut someone some slack.
What is slack? Slack is the opposite of tension. So if you imagine a rope that's very
tight, you can pull something with that rope. But, if the rope is very relaxed, right? It
has slack in it. When you cut someone some slack, you're giving that, sort of, slack
rope to someone; you're letting go of the pressure. You're reducing the pressure on
someone. And we do this by being less critical of a person or giving a person more
space because you know that person has either recently undergone a difficult
situation or is currently experiencing a difficult situation. You give them some slack.

For example, I'm a university teacher, and my students, you know, it's difficult for
them this past year. It has been because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have to
stay at home. They have to do lots of classes online. It's not easy. They can't be with
their friends. Maybe some of them are having mental issues or emotional issues.
Maybe their parents are having financial issues. It's a tough time. So, I'm trying not to
be too strict in my grading. And I'm trying to give them a little bit less work than I
might otherwise. I'm trying to cut them some slack. To give them a little bit of space,
to not be too critical of their work. I'm trying to cut them some slack.

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If you know somebody whose loved one died recently, you should cut them some
slack, give them some space. Don't criticize them. Don't be too harsh in your
treatment of them. Hey man, I'm really stressed out. Can you cut me some slack,
please? Don't cut him any slack. Right? He doesn't deserve it. Right? Be tough on him.
Like that. So, has anyone ever cut you some slack, or have you had to cut some slack
in relation to another person? I'm sure you have.

The next one is to cut something or someone loose. Cut something loose. Cut
someone loose. When you cut someone loose, you end a relationship with someone.
Right? Or something. And it's often very abrupt. Now, literally, when we cut someone
loose, we take a knife, and we cut the thing that is binding them. So if you're, I don't
know, if you're at the ocean and you see a dolphin who got caught in a fishing net,
you need to cut that dolphin loose. So he or she can be free again and not die. And
you cut them loose from the net with a knife. But figuratively, it means to kind of
abruptly end a relationship. For example, a company might cut an employee loose,
right? If they're not performing well, or if they're causing problems. They'll cut that
employee loose. And that means fire that person or ask them to resign. They cut
them loose. They end their association with that employee. If you have a friend that
always borrows money and never returns it to you, you might think of cutting her
loose. She's not trustworthy. That's probably not a good person to be in a
relationship with. Cut her loose. If you have an abusive friend or an abusive partner
who's verbally abusive or physically abusive, you should cut that person loose as
soon as possible.

Now that's a little bit different, from cutting someone down to size. You'll hear this
expression. What does it mean to cut someone down to size? Well, when you cut
someone down to size, you're criticizing them, to show them that they are less
important than they think they are. So if you know a guy who thinks he's like really
cool and really smart, he's better than everyone else. Eventually, somebody is going
to cut him down to size. They're going to criticize him openly, maybe in front of other
people and to show him that he's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. You see this
in sports a lot. Sometimes athletes will, kind of think that they're much better than
they actually are. And someone will cut them down to size pretty quickly. Who's
better than they are. So, have you ever been cut down to size? I have when I was
younger; I've been cut down to size. When I was a teenager, I sometimes thought I
was better than I actually was at different things. And, life has a way of cutting you
down to size pretty quickly.

The next one is to have your work cut out for you. To have one's work cut out for
one. What does that mean? You can probably guess this one. It simply means to be
faced with a very large and difficult task that will require a lot of work to complete. A
lot of hard work. So, for example, I'm sure many people, they want to get fluent in
English. They want to be really good at it, but if you want to be fluent in English.
You've got your work cut out for you. It's not easy. You've got to work at it every day.
It takes effort. It takes time. It takes energy. You've got your work cut out for you. If

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you want to make social change in your country, that's not an easy to do. You've got
your work cut out for you. That's a big job, to make social change, in an entire
country.

Okay. The next one is to cut one's teeth on something. Now literally, babies cut
their teeth. When they're very young. I can't even remember when it happens. It's
probably; it may be six months or eight months. Their teeth start coming in, and it's
kind of painful. And babies can be kind of cranky and cry a lot because the teeth are
coming through the gums. They're cutting their teeth. Figuratively, this means to gain
a lot of experience, often in a good way, at something when you're very young, or
just younger than you are now.

So, for example, I'm an English teacher now, but way back 25 years ago in the mid-
nineties, I cut my teeth on English teaching in Taiwan. That's where I first started to
gain experience. And I gained a lot of experience in a very short time. Over the
course of two years in Taiwan, I cut my teeth on teaching English back then.
Sometimes comedians, especially famous, great comedians. Most of them cut their
teeth at a young age. In smoky, comedy clubs late at night with lots of drunk people.
That's where they cut their teeth. They got a lot of experience being booed and
having things thrown at them. And having people berate them and say bad things to
them. But that made them who they are, right? That gave them a lot of experience
that allowed them to get better, and to get wiser, and to get more skillful. They cut
their teeth in these dark, smoky places.

Okay. The next one is to cut one's losses. What does that mean? Well, when you cut
your losses, it means that you quit or you just withdraw from a situation, it's not
working out for you. It's a losing situation. So let's imagine that you own stock in a
company, and you've purchased a lot of stock. And one day, you wake up, and you
see, that overnight, that the price of that stock is going down pretty rapidly. And you
look at the news, and you read about what's happening, and you think, "Oh my gosh,
if I hold onto this stock, it could even go down further and further. There's no end in
sight. I better sell this stock now and cut my losses." So that means you do lose.
You've already lost some of it, but you end it, you withdraw that money. So as not to
lose more. You cut your losses.

Same thing. If you're in a relationship with a person, and that relationship is not
going well. Maybe you should end it before it gets worse. You should cut your losses.
Or if you are working for a company, and it's not going well, and you're not happy,
and you're overworked, you're underpaid, cut your losses, get out, get out now while
you can, and move on to something else.

I know a guy that started a business. It was his dream of opening a pizza restaurant.
He always dreamed of that. And he got his chance finally, when he was in his mid-
fifties and he did it, he took the risk. But, after about a year, he was losing money
rapidly, and it wasn't working out, unfortunately. So, he decided rather than keep the

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restaurant and keep dumping money into it and try for another year to make it
happen. He decided to cut his losses. He sold the restaurant. He sold the big,
beautiful pizza oven he had. And he ended up losing quite a bit of money, but not as
much money in time as he would had he tried to save the restaurant. That was his
decision. Have you ever had to cut your losses in a losing situation? I think all of us
have experienced that in some form or another.

Okay. Finally, the last one is quite proverbial. It's kind of a proverb that we often say
to people, to give them advice. And that is, don't cut off your nose to spite your
face. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. What this means is, when you
actually cut off your nose to spite your own face, it means that you're harming
yourself. You're hurting yourself in the process of trying to harm or do damage to
someone else. So you have to be careful if you're going to harm or damage another
person; you have to make sure that it's beneficial for you to do that. Some people,
they get so emotional that they try to do damage to another person, and they end
up hurting themselves.

Let me give you a few examples. Let's say there's a teacher at a school and the
teacher one day is quite critical of the principal. And she continues to be critical of
the principal and his decisions that he makes. And one day he gets so angry, and he
fires that teacher. But, what he doesn't really understand is that teacher is the most
popular teacher in the school amongst the students. So when the students hear that
this teacher is fired, they go crazy. And so what he has done is, he has, cut off, his
nose to spite his face. He's cut off his nose to spite his face. And he's fired this
teacher, and it hurts him. It hurts his school. It hurts the atmosphere of the school,
the morale of the students, the quality of the education. It's his job to oversee that.
And he has cut off his nose to spite his face.

It's the same thing if a manager or a coach gets angry at the star player and they
have a dispute, and as punishment, he puts the star player on the bench and doesn't
let him play because he knows it'll make that player angry. But what he is failing to
see is, he needs that star player to keep his job because his team is in trouble. He
needs that star player out there on the field, but he's allowing his personal feelings
to interfere with what he really should be doing, for his own good. Right? He has cut
off his nose to spite his face. And the same thing might happen to you.

Let's say you're at work, and you have a coworker who you just have so many
problems with. You hate that coworker. You're always arguing. That coworker is
always getting on your nerves, and rather than deal with it in a proper way; you
decide to start complaining about that person to all the other coworkers and even
your boss. And so you're complaining, and you're talking behind that person's back,
and people start thinking, "Geez, I hope I never have a problem with you. Should I
trust this person? They're complaining behind the scenes and talking about this
person behind their back." And yeah, you shouldn't cut off your nose to spite your
face. You should deal with it in a direct way with the boss only. And don't complain to

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other people, right? Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. And that brings us to
the end of this video. Again, as always, I say to you, ask if you want help, with more
examples for us to explain it further. Especially if you're feeling confused about how
to use these expressions. And, of course, try to use them. Writing is a good way. You
can write them in like a daily journal. Of course, speaking with other people, try and
integrate these into your speaking patterns. And, this is a great way to improve your
English. So, we hope to hear from you, and let's get together in Zoom and practice
these. See you soon.

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