cut across

British  

verb

1. (intr) to be contrary to ordinary procedure or limitations

   opinion on European integration still cuts clean across party lines

2. to cross or traverse, making a shorter route

   she cut across the field quickly

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cut across Idioms  

1. Go beyond, transcend, as in The new regulations cut across class lines. This figurative use of cut across, which literally means “run through” or “intersect,” dates from the 1920s.

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Example Sentences

Before it was destroyed, Mariupol’s theater served as a bomb shelter whose denizens cut across social, economic and cultural classes.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026

“I don’t think about it in raw numbers. I think about it in the wealth of expertise and knowledge that has been cut across all levels,” a former senior Justice Department official said.

From Salon • Apr. 22, 2026

The Walt Disney Co. has begun a broad round of layoffs, which will result in 1,000 jobs being cut across multiple divisions within the Burbank entertainment giant.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2026

The study also supports a broader shift in psychiatry toward dimensional and data-driven frameworks that cut across traditional diagnoses.

From Science Daily • Apr. 9, 2026

Knowing that the road was forbidden to him, because of his poor sight and habit of walking stolidly in the middle, he had found a short cut across the intervening fields.

From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford

Related Words

• cruise
• navigate
• pass over
• ply
• sail
• span
• traverse