cutoff

American  

[kuht-awf, -of] / ˈkʌtˌɔf, -ˌɒf /

noun

• cutoffs
  plural

1. an act or instance of cutting off.

2. something that cuts off.

3. a road, passage, etc., that leaves another, usually providing a shortcut.

   Let's take the cutoff to Baltimore.

4. a new and shorter channel formed in a river by the water cutting across a bend in its course.

5. a point, time, or stage serving as the limit beyond which something is no longer effective, applicable, or possible.

6. cutoffs, Also cut-offs shorts made by cutting the legs off a pair of trousers, especially jeans, above the knees and often leaving the cut edges ragged.

7. Accounting. a selected point at which records are considered complete for the purpose of settling accounts, taking inventory, etc.

8. Baseball. an infielder's interception of a ball thrown from the outfield in order to relay it to home plate or keep a base runner from advancing.

9. Machinery. arrest of the steam moving the pistons of an engine, usually occurring before the completion of a stroke.

10. Electronics. (in a vacuum tube) the minimum grid potential preventing an anode current.

11. Rocketry. the termination of propulsion, either by shutting off the propellant flow or by stopping the combustion of the propellant.

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adjective

1. being or constituting the limit or ending.

   a cutoff date for making changes.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cutoffs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cutoff

First recorded in 1735–45; noun use of verb phrase cut off

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cutoff cutoffs

Title III of Helms-Burton contains a 1996 cutoff.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

The challenge is that there is no simple age cutoff.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

A competing interpretation has emerged of the preliminary report's most puzzling detail: the brief movement of both fuel-control switches to "cutoff" shortly after take-off.

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026

The preliminary report, released on July 12, indicated External link that two fuel cutoff switches transitioned from “RUN” to “CUTOFF,” according to the flight data recorder.

From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026

He was living on a slightly tumbledown horse farm in northern Missouri, sitting on the back porch in jeans and a cutoff T- shirt.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

But the wholesale pathologizing of imperfect, yet loving, parents has created an epidemic of unnecessary cutoffs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

TikTok has implemented 60-minute daily screen time limits for users under 18 and notification cutoffs based on age groups.

From Barron's ● Feb. 9, 2026

Given increases in the average human lifespan, the existing age cutoffs that presume a 50-year-old who can perform only sedentary work is disabled while a 49-year-old is not represent loose standards that need modernization.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2025

The fire burned more than 2,600 acres and it caused widespread evacuations and power cutoffs, prompting Van Dyke to flee his home, Variety reported.

From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2024

They were tanned by the sun; all wore cutoffs, T-shirts and sneakers.

From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt