cutback

[kuht-bak]

See more synonyms for cutback on Thesaurus.com

noun

a reduction in rate, quantity, etc.: a cutback in production.
a return in the course of a story, motion picture, etc., to earlier events.
Football. a play in which the ball-carrier abruptly reverses direction, especially by starting to make an end run and then turning suddenly to run toward the middle of the line.

a maneuver in surfing of heading the surfboard back toward a wave's crest.

Origin of cutback

First recorded in 1895–1900; noun use of verb phrase cut back

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for cutback

decline, reduction, reversal, belt-tightening, lowering, lessening, abatement, curtailment, decrement, economy

Examples from the Web for cutback

Contemporary Examples of cutback

I'm not sure how some lower-end retail workers are going to survive the cutback.
Counting Full Time Employees
Megan McArdle
January 18, 2013
In the throes of cutback after cutback, the content being presented is suffering.
The Media Can Profit from Twitter's Big Week
Larry Kramer
June 17, 2009
I always thought S'Bucks was a ripoff anyway, so that's a cutback that I really don't mind at all.
The Bag Lady Papers, Part IV
Alexandra Penney
January 14, 2009

British Dictionary definitions for cutback

cutback

noun

a decrease or reduction
another word (esp US) for flashback

verb cut back (adverb)

(tr) to shorten by cutting off the end; prune
(when intr, foll by on) to reduce or make a reduction (in)
(intr) mainly US (in films) to show an event that took place earlier in the narrative; flash back

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012