cut adrift

Idioms  

1. Separated or detached; freed. For example, The dissenters were cut adrift from the denomination. This expression alludes to cutting the rope of a floating vessel so that it drifts without direction or purpose. The figurative use of adrift dates from the late 1600s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cut adrift

It is a disastrous result for Nuno Espirito Santo's men, who are in danger of being cut adrift at the bottom of the Premier League along with Wolves and Burnley.

From Barron's ● Jan. 3, 2026

No one has been cut adrift in the fight for survival with just three points separating Leicester in 14th and bottom-of-the-table Southampton.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 21, 2023

Tracy Kato-Kiriyama reads with sensitivity and restraint how Alice, an aging swimmer afflicted with dementia, is increasingly cut adrift on stranger tides uncontained by lane markers.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 9, 2022

"We never argued against restrictions, we always argued that at least one family member being allowed in. They shouldn't have been cut adrift for more than a year in many places."

From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2022

My confused feeling for her had been holding me back, and I had clung to her out of my fear of being forced out on my own, and cut adrift.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes