cut to the bone

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.

Example Sentences

“It seems like anything climate related is being either cut to the bone or completely eliminated, with no assessment of its value or importance.”

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Musk, however, has been clear that he believes the government has to be cut to the bone immediately which he admits will cause "hardship" that we will just have to bear.

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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.

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While the debt ceiling deal ostensibly "capped" all spending at 2023 levels for two years, nobody said that appropriations bills which had to be finished by September 30 couldn't be cut to the bone.

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Scarred torsos, amputated limbs, wrists cut to the bone: These are the signatures of a man caught between genocide and the burdens of his fate.

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Related Words

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