cut and run

Idioms  

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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cut and run

How many cut and run following the 21 years Berkshire’s growth lagged the S&P 500 or the 11 years its value fell?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2025

“We’re not going to cut and run at the first sign of trouble,” he says.

From Seattle Times ● May 17, 2023

Mary Kambo from the Kenya Human Rights Commission says, "We're calling upon the UK market... we're not inviting them to do a cut and run but really to leverage on their position as a market."

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2021

And the way she was looking at the guy...Yeah, was it any wonder that he decided it was best to cut and run?

From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau

Related Words

• avoid
• depart
• disappear
• dodge
• elude
• emerge
• evade
• flee
• fly
• leave
• run
• slip
• slip away
• vanish