crosscut

American  

[kraws-kuht, kros-] / ˈkrɔsˌkʌt, ˈkrɒs- /

adjective

1. made or used for cutting crosswise.

2. cut across the grain or on the bias.

---

noun

1. a transverse cut or course.

2. a shortcut by way of an area not ordinarily traversed, as grass or open country; a route that cuts diagonally across a road or path network.

3. Mining. an underground passageway, usually from a shaft to a vein of ore or crosswise of a vein of ore.

4. Movies, Television. an act or instance of crosscutting.

5. a crosscut saw.

verb (used with object)

crosscut, crosscutting

1. to cut or go across.

2. Movies, Television. to insert into a scene or sequence (portions of another scene), as to heighten suspense or suggest simultaneous action.

verb (used without object)

crosscut, crosscutting

1. Movies, Television. to employ the technique of crosscutting.

crosscut British  

/ ˈkrɒsˌkʌt /

adjective

1. cut at right angles or obliquely to the major axis

---

noun

1. a transverse cut or course

2. a less common word for short cut

3. mining a tunnel through a vein of ore or from the shaft to a vein

verb

1. to cut across

2. Also: intercut.  films to link (two sequences or two shots) so that they appear to be taking place at the same time

Other Word Forms

• crosscutter
  noun

Etymology

Origin of crosscut

First recorded in 1580–90; cross- + cut

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crosscut crosscutting

“I don’t like the crosscut, because you’re relying on someone else.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2025

One day, her four-person crew hiked three miles into the woods toting a crosscut saw.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 15, 2021

Throughout this thing, Thompson is dropping explanatory information and montages that are crosscut with more information.

From New York Times ● Jun. 24, 2021

Howe and Stokes both grew up in Portland, and neither had a background in timber cutting, let alone using crosscut saws - the 19th-century tool known by lumberjacks as a “misery whip.”

From Washington Times ● Oct. 28, 2018

Pulling her end of a crosscut saw, and swinging the heavy blade of a double-bitted ax, she helped Papa clear the land.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

But crosscutting concerns for months had made it impossible to gain traction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2025

And yet, the series takes pains to connect them, thematically and visually, in the editing process, through crosscutting that links them throughout different periods of their lives.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2024

There’s the part at the end of the song that’s crosscutting between Harris and Evelyn, and Nathan Lane just floats this lovely falsetto at the end.

From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2023

Calm skies must also prevail because crosscutting winds called shear can rip holes in a nascent hurricane’s vortex.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 1, 2023

This is, that the tendency of ore-fissures to be formed in parallels warrants Page 87 more systematic crosscutting into the country rock than is done in many mines.

From Principles of Mining Valuation, Organization and Administration by Herbert Hoover

Related Words

• cut across
• transect