cut-and-dried

or cut-and-dry

[ kuht-n-drahyd ]

adjective

1. prepared or settled in advance; not needing much thought or discussion:

   a cut-and-dried decision.

2. lacking in originality or spontaneity; routine; boring:

   a lecture that was cut-and-dried.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cut-and-dried¹

First recorded in 1700–10

Idioms and Phrases

Ready-made, predetermined and not changeable. For example, The procedure is not quite cut and dried—there's definitely room for improvisation . This expression originally alluded to herbs for sale in a shop, as opposed to fresh, growing herbs. [c. 1900]

Example Sentences

The woman felt a certain fainting of purpose at the cut-and-dried programme presented in that dry manner by the dry old man.

From Project Gutenberg

Once more she was all for luxury and ease and calmness, for the pleasant, soothing, cut-and-dried thing.

From Project Gutenberg

It may be that our feelings will thus be more interesting than a cut-and-dried treatise of the land and its inhabitants.

From Project Gutenberg

The councils were no longer the orderly conferences of savants over cut-and-dried maps.

From Project Gutenberg

In such matters an ounce of personal experience is worth a pound of cut-and-dried theory.

From Project Gutenberg