crosscut
Americannoun
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a transverse cut or course.
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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.
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Mining. an underground passageway, usually from a shaft to a vein of ore or crosswise of a vein of ore.
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Movies, Television. an act or instance of crosscutting.
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a crosscut saw.
verb (used with object)
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to cut or go across.
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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)
adjective
noun
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a transverse cut or course
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a less common word for short cut
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mining a tunnel through a vein of ore or from the shaft to a vein
verb
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to cut across
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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
Etymology
Origin of crosscut
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“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
He brought to the club the skills to work a crosscut saw and swing a pulaski - a wildland firefighter’s hand tool that’s been in use for more than a century.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 28, 2018
It features footage of an unnamed white rat crosscut with video of his granddaughter Amy when she was about a year old.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 25, 2016
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 are a few crosscutting themes in my work — thriller aspect with “Blackfish,” but also can I say something remotely important in a new way?
From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2024
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
Begin sawing as in crosscutting, that is, at the farther corner with the handle end of the saw up, and gradually drop the handle.
From Handwork in Wood by Noyes, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
