CUT OFF

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cut off mean? 

• CUT OFF (adjective)
  The adjective CUT OFF has 1 sense:

1. detached by cutting

  Familiarity information: CUT OFF used as an adjective is very rare.

• CUT OFF (verb)
  The verb CUT OFF has 6 senses:

1. make a break in

2. cease, stop

3. remove by or as if by cutting

4. cut off and stop

5. break a small piece off from

6. remove surgically

  Familiarity information: CUT OFF used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CUT OFF (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Detached by cutting

Synonyms:

cut off; severed

Context example:

an old tale of Anne Bolyn walking the castle walls with her poor cut-off head under her arm

Similar:

cut (separated into parts or laid open or penetrated with a sharp edge or instrument)

• CUT OFF (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a break in

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

break up; cut off; disrupt; interrupt

Context example:

We interrupt the program for the following messages

Hypernyms (to "cut off" is one way to...):

break; break off; discontinue; stop (prevent completion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cut off"):

cut; cut off (cease, stop)

punctuate (interrupt periodically)

break (interrupt the flow of current in)

put aside; put away (turn away from and put aside, perhaps temporarily)

break; intermit; pause (cease an action temporarily)

barge in; break in; butt in; chime in; chisel in; cut in; put in (break into a conversation)

burst in on; burst upon (spring suddenly)

heckle (challenge aggressively)

come in; inject; interject; interpose; put in; throw in (to insert between other elements)

block; jam (interfere with or prevent the reception of signals)

stop; stop over (interrupt a trip)

take off; take time off (take time off from work; stop working temporarily)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cease, stop

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

cut; cut off

Context example:

We had to cut short the conversation

Hypernyms (to "cut off" is one way to...):

break up; cut off; disrupt; interrupt (make a break in)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Remove by or as if by cutting

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

chop off; cut off; lop off

Context example:

lop off the dead branch

Hypernyms (to "cut off" is one way to...):

come away; come off; detach (come to be detached)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cut off"):

abscise (remove or separate by abscission)

roach (cut the mane off (a horse))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Cut off and stop

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

cut off; cut out

Context example:

The bicyclist was cut out by the van

Hypernyms (to "cut off" is one way to...):

intercept; stop (seize on its way)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Break a small piece off from

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

break off; chip; cut off; knap

Context example:

chip a tooth

Hypernyms (to "cut off" is one way to...):

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Remove surgically

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

amputate; cut off

Context example:

amputate limbs

Hypernyms (to "cut off" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

"Cut off" entails doing...:

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Domain category:

medicine; practice of medicine (the learned profession that is mastered by graduate training in a medical school and that is devoted to preventing or alleviating or curing diseases and injuries)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cut off"):

slough off (separate from surrounding living tissue, as in an abortion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

Did he cut off his foot?

 Context examples 

The explosion had blown in the wall and cut off the only path by which they could descend.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The malefactor was fixed in a chair upon a scaffold erected for that purpose, and his head cut off at one blow, with a sword of about forty feet long.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Since Capricorn is an earth sign, it could have felt like your air supply was being cut off—a smothering experience.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

When I began chopping again, my axe slipped and cut off my right leg.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Then the fox came, and said, “Pray kill me, and cut off my head and my feet.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

‘I am sorry to cut off your view, Mr. Melas,’ said he. ‘The fact is that I have no intention that you should see what the place is to which we are driving.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Oh, Mr. Holmes, I would cut off my right hand before I gave him a moment of sorrow!

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The shutters cut off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If the Count is there, Van Helsing and Seward will cut off his head at once and drive a stake through his heart.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The rivers were covered with ice, and no fish could be procured; and thus I was cut off from my chief article of maintenance.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)