short-cut
verb (used with object)
to cause to be shortened by the use of a shortcut.
short-cut
American
[shawrt-kuht]
/ ˈʃɔrtˌkʌt /
verb (used with object)
short-cut,
short-cutting
verb (used without object)
short-cut,
short-cutting
short cut
British
noun
-
a route that is shorter than the usual one
-
a means of saving time or effort
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of short-cut
First recorded in 1560–70
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The legislators, however, said they will fight Newsom’s attempt to short-cut the established process.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2025
Let’s try the Expedia plug-in as a short-cut.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2023
I wouldn't recommend serving with a short-cut pasta, though.
From Salon ● Nov. 27, 2022
“Let’s see if we can short-cut that time as much as possible and make Aston Martin successful next season.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
I’d referred, just in passing, to the fact that at Hailsham, the short-cut down to the pond through the rhubarb patch was out of bounds.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Such a short cut could allow Chinese companies to catch up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
A macro can be thought of as a short cut.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026
Taking a short cut on the long walk to school, she stumbles on a pond in a wooded area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2025
You can buy it ready made in a jar or even a box, off the grocery store shelf or use an equally accessible powdered packet as a short cut.
From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2025
Knowing that the road was forbidden to him, because of his poor sight and habit of walking stolidly in the middle, he had found a short cut across the intervening fields.
From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford
So you can do it my short-cutting home cook's way, just know that when you do, a small part of a hard-working pastry chef's soul will die along with your sloppy swirls.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2023
Some developers are running safety and efficacy trials in tandem, instead of sequentially, as is typical, and short-cutting traditional testing protocols.
From Reuters ● Apr. 25, 2020
It’s full of technologists who grow crops in buildings instead of outdoors, short-cutting the need to prematurely harvest produce for a bumpy ride often thousands of miles to consumers in colder climes.
From Washington Times ● May 10, 2018
And they warn that short-cutting the traditional clinical-trial process could make it more difficult to tell whether GM604 really works.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 3, 2015
Amid the confusion, irregular trodden paths led, short-cutting, toward the clattering, grinding munition plants.
From The Sturdy Oak A composite Novel of American Politics by fourteen American authors by Elizabeth Garver Jordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
