cut to the bone

Idioms  

1. Severely reduced, as in During the Depression Grandmother's housekeeping money was cut to the bone. The phrase to the bone, literally meaning “through the flesh to the inmost part or core,” dates from about 1400. This expression in effect means that everything extraneous has been cut away so that only bone remains.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cut to the bone

He said local authorities, who run schools in Scotland, had been "cut to the bone".

From BBC ● May 3, 2026

To stretch her legs, she had to leave a passenger door ajar, but September nights are raw in the Pacific Northwest, with sheets of rain that cut to the bone.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 18, 2023

"Their budget has been cut to the bone, and they are unable to perform many responsibilities that are vital to the national interest."

From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2022

Local staffs were cut to the bone and syndicated content and infomercials began to fill the broadcast day.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2022

So quiet that in the previous year’s race against California he’d rowed the whole two miles with his thumb cut to the bone and never mentioned it to anyone.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• abbreviate
• compress
• curtail
• cut
• cut back
• cut down
• lessen
• minimize
• reduce
• shrink
• slash
• trim