cut to the quick

Idioms  

1. Deeply wound or distress, as in His criticism cut her to the quick. This phrase uses the quick in the sense of a vital or a very sensitive part of the body, such as under the fingernails. It also appeared in such older locutions as touched to the quick, for “deeply affected,” and stung to the quick, for “wounded, distressed,” both dating from the early 1500s. The current expression was considered a cliché from about 1850 on.

---

Example Sentences

But he was cut to the quick by the official discharge.

From Literature

Taylor Gilbert, the founder and co-artistic director of the Road Theatre Company, says she was taken with how the story “cuts to the quick of relevant issues with humor and heart.”

From Los Angeles Times

Hall’s adaptation cuts to the quick of the novel and transfers the shifting, unsettling quality of Larsen’s text back onto the viewer’s shoulders.

From New York Times

When therapists talk to adult clients and conduct surveys, they find that kids hold onto "things like that, that cut to the quick," ruminating over them well into their adolescent and adult years.

From Salon

Her words cut to the quick of Maud’s beliefs, the constructions and delusions of a troubled and very lonely young woman.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• annoy
• antagonize
• bother
• chagrin
• disappoint
• disgust
• dissatisfy
• enrage
• exasperate
• frustrate
• gall
• incense
• irk
• irritate
• offend
• perplex
• rile
• upset
• vex