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

Cutoff lows are so notorious to forecasters that they’re referred to as “weatherman’s woe,” Kittell said.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 16, 2025

Kishida proposed reactivating discussion of the 1993 Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty, or FMCT, which has never entered negotiations at the United Nations, but its significance remains unchanged.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 19, 2023

Additional trails such as the North Alternate Route and Goodale’s Cutoff are not recognized because of their dates of use.

From Washington Times • Apr. 4, 2020

Night Moves, a thriller about eco-terrorism, is on Amazon, and Meek’s Cutoff, which is about a band of settlers lost in the desert, is on Amazon and Hulu.

From The Verge • Mar. 14, 2020

Cutoff all the tops of the hills, and lay in the bottoms, and there you are, level road all the way.”

From Devon Boys A Tale of the North Shore by Browne, Gordon