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Synonyms

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.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“It may be a collective. It may be a store. There’s no way I can cut and run out of a place that’s so special.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 17, 2025

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

From Seattle Times • May 17, 2023

Though I am part of several lovely group chats, that was the one that made me realize that sometimes you’ve got to cut and run.

From Slate • Dec. 28, 2022

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

My heart is jumping around in my chest, and I'm tensed, ready to cut and run.

From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.