cutoff

[kuht-awf, -of]

noun

1. an act or instance of cutting off.

2. something that cuts off.

3. a road, passage, etc., that leaves another, usually providing a shortcut.

   Let's take the cutoff to Baltimore.

4. a new and shorter channel formed in a river by the water cutting across a bend in its course.

5. a point, time, or stage serving as the limit beyond which something is no longer effective, applicable, or possible.

6. cutoffs, Also cut-offs shorts made by cutting the legs off a pair of trousers, especially jeans, above the knees and often leaving the cut edges ragged.

7. Accounting.,  a selected point at which records are considered complete for the purpose of settling accounts, taking inventory, etc.

8. Baseball.,  an infielder's interception of a ball thrown from the outfield in order to relay it to home plate or keep a base runner from advancing.

9. Machinery.,  arrest of the steam moving the pistons of an engine, usually occurring before the completion of a stroke.

10. Electronics.,  (in a vacuum tube) the minimum grid potential preventing an anode current.

11. Rocketry.,  the termination of propulsion, either by shutting off the propellant flow or by stopping the combustion of the propellant.

adjective

1. being or constituting the limit or ending.

   a cutoff date for making changes.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cutoff¹

First recorded in 1735–45; noun use of verb phrase cut off

Example Sentences

But some of the quickest to respond to the looming cutoff have been communities and citizens mobilizing in every state.

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Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia sued the administration on Tuesday to block the cutoff.

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For those dependent on the program, the cutoff can devastate household budgets.

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If the government shutdown stretches beyond October, experts warn that Nov. 1 could mark a grim cutoff for low- and middle-income families.

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Given increases in the average human lifespan, the existing age cutoffs that presume a 50-year-old who can perform only sedentary work is disabled while a 49-year-old is not represent loose standards that need modernization.

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