CUTOFF Definition & Meaning

cutoff

[ kuht-awf, -of ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

an act or instance of cutting off.
something that cuts off.
a road, passage, etc., that leaves another, usually providing a shortcut:
Let's take the cutoff to Baltimore.
a new and shorter channel formed in a river by the water cutting across a bend in its course.
a point, time, or stage serving as the limit beyond which something is no longer effective, applicable, or possible.
cutoffs, Also ��ܳ�-�Ǵڴڲ�. shorts made by cutting the legs off a pair of trousers, especially jeans, above the knees and often leaving the cut edges ragged.
Accounting. a selected point at which records are considered complete for the purpose of settling accounts, taking inventory, etc.
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.
Machinery. arrest of the steam moving the pistons of an engine, usually occurring before the completion of a stroke.
Electronics. (in a vacuum tube) the minimum grid potential preventing an anode current.
Rocketry. the termination of propulsion, either by shutting off the propellant flow or by stopping the combustion of the propellant.

adjective

being or constituting the limit or ending:
a cutoff date for making changes.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of cutoff¹

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

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

After the Trump administration’s announcement of the immediate cutoff of the funding, Michael C. Dorf of Cornell Law School asked on his blog: “Wait, can they actually do that? The answer is plainly no.”

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Like with the psychopathy scale: It's a continuous scale with no sharp cutoff point, but you can see the different life trajectories.

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The lawsuit was filed by nonprofit groups over the cutoff of foreign assistance through the U.S.

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A great many people will suffer; we’ve already seen that with the cutoff of foreign aid, arguably one of the most effective and least understood of federal programs.

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Cut off from the prevailing jet stream, that low-pressure system is something called a “cutoff low,” which wobbles around and can be less predictable than if the system were connected to the jet stream.

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