cutting edge
- the sharp edge of a cutting implement.
- forefront; lead: on the cutting edge of computer technology.
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Origin of cutting edge
First recorded in 1950–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
forefrontinnovationvanguardadvancementavant-gardeforefrontinventionpioneerpointspearheadvanExamples from the Web for cutting edge
Contemporary Examples
It is cutting-edge products like these that are helping define this new age of wireless entertainment.
New Innovations Let You Watch TV Anywhere You GoDecember 8, 2014
She was researching the most cutting-edge, experimental, and possibly toxic drugs before she considered going back to basics.
Where were the cutting-edge studies supportive of [my] view?
And we needed someone who could organize a cutting-edge ground-game that united all sides of the party.
The cutting-edge forensic work that it took to bring them into custody from abroad is retold with great aplomb by Levington.
Historical Examples
“Makes you feel like using a phone is a really futuristic, cutting-edge activity,” he said.
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves TownCory Doctorow
The cutting-edge should descend upon a strip of copper inserted in the iron, to prevent it from being dulled.
Sheep, Swine, and PoultryRobert Jennings
The bearing brackets for the hydraulic jacks were attached, as at the south shaft, to the inside of the cutting-edge brackets.
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910James H. Brace, Francis Mason and S. H. Woodard
Bear in mind that the shape of the cut made by the plane will be a reversed copy of the shape of the cutting-edge.
Woodworking for BeginnersCharles Gardner Wheeler
Try to grind squarely across the chisel—that is, to have the cutting-edge at right angles to the lengthways edge of the tool.
Woodworking for BeginnersCharles Gardner Wheeler
cutting edge
- the leading position in any field; forefronton the cutting edge of space technology
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- at the forefront of people or things in a field of activity; leadingcutting-edge technology
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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
Word Origin and History for cutting edge
also cutting-edge, 1825 in the literal sense (often at first with reference to plows); figurative sense is from 1964.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper