cut and run

1. Clear out, escape, desert, as in He wished he could just cut and run. This term originally (about 1700) meant to cut a vessel's anchor cable and make sail at once. By the mid-1800s it was being used figuratively. Charles Dickens had it in Great Expectations (1861): “I'd give a shilling if they had cut and run.” Also see cut out, def. 7.

Example Sentences

The one thing you shouldn’t do is cut and run, because one couple is in a lot of trouble for doing just that.

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Labour blame the Conservatives for failing to build enough new prison places and claim the reason Sunak called the election when he did - rather than serve another six months or so, as he could have chosen to do - was because his party wanted to "cut and run" from the problems that were stacking up.

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Although the fiscal realities are ugly, it’s worth remembering that in providing the coverage, California is sticking with some of its most vulnerable residents, at a time when it would be easier to cut and run.

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Instead of hanging 10, some surfers in Newport Beach had to cut and run after they were accosted by an aggressive sea lion.

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In No 10, "we don't think there is a cut and run", a senior source says.

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Related Words

• avoid 
• depart 
• disappear 
• dodge 
• elude 
• emerge 
• evade 
• flee 
• fly 
• leave 
• run 
• slip 
• slip away www.thesaurus.com
• vanish