| Library / English Dictionary |
CUT DOWN
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Cut down on; make a reduction in
Example:
The employer wants to cut back health benefits
Synonyms:
bring down; cut; cut back; cut down; reduce; trim; trim back; trim down
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "cut down" is one way to...):
decrease; lessen; minify (make smaller)
Verb group:
cut (have a reducing effect)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cut down"):
knock off; shave (cut the price of)
subtract (take off or away)
downsize ((of a company) reduce in size or number of employees)
inflate (increase the amount or availability of, creating a rise in value)
deflate (reduce or cut back the amount or availability of, creating a decline in value or prices)
detract; take away (take away a part from; diminish)
thin (make thin or thinner)
thin out (make sparse)
slash (cut drastically)
retrench (make a reduction, as in one's workforce)
quench (reduce the degree of (luminescence or phosphorescence) in (excited molecules or a material) by adding a suitable substance)
spill (reduce the pressure of wind on (a sail))
shorten (make shorter than originally intended; reduce or retrench in length or duration)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Intercept (a player)
Synonyms:
cut down; cut out
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Hypernyms (to "cut down" is one way to...):
arrest; check; contain; hold back; stop; turn back (hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of)
Domain category:
ball; baseball; baseball game (a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players; teams take turns at bat trying to score runs)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Sense 3
Meaning:
Cause to come or go down
Example:
The mugger knocked down the old lady after she refused to hand over her wallet
Synonyms:
cut down; down; knock down; pull down; push down
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "cut down" is one way to...):
strike (deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cut down"):
submarine (bring down with a blow to the legs)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Sentence example:
The fighter managed to cut down his opponent
Sense 4
Meaning:
Cause to fall by or as if by delivering a blow
Example:
Lightning struck down the hikers
Synonyms:
cut down; drop; fell; strike down
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "cut down" is one way to...):
cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)
Cause:
come down; descend; fall; go down (move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cut down"):
chop down (cut down)
poleax; poleaxe (fell with or as if with a poleax)
log; lumber (cut lumber, as in woods and forests)
cut (fell by sawing; hew)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Sentence example:
They cut down the trees
Sense 5
Meaning:
Cut with a blade or mower
Example:
mow the grass
Synonyms:
cut down; mow
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "cut down" is one way to...):
cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cut down"):
scythe (cut with a scythe)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sentence example:
They cut down rye in the field
Sense 6
Meaning:
Cut with sweeping strokes; as with an ax or machete
Synonyms:
cut down; slash
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "cut down" is one way to...):
cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sentence example:
They cut down the trees
Context examples:
All these things we collected together in the clearing, and as a first precaution, we cut down with our hatchet and knives a number of thorny bushes, which we piled round in a circle some fifteen yards in diameter.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I returned home, and consulting with the sorrel nag, we went into a copse at some distance, where I with my knife, and he with a sharp flint, fastened very artificially after their manner, to a wooden handle, cut down several oak wattles, about the thickness of a walking-staff, and some larger pieces.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Dummling went and cut down the tree, and when it fell there was a goose sitting in the roots with feathers of pure gold.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
A young woman, pretty, lively, with a harp as elegant as herself, and both placed near a window, cut down to the ground, and opening on a little lawn, surrounded by shrubs in the rich foliage of summer, was enough to catch any man's heart.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
The bed, the carpet, the chairs the mantelpiece, the dead body, and the rope were each in turn examined, until at last he professed himself satisfied, and with my aid and that of the inspector cut down the wretched object and laid it reverently under a sheet.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This also added to my wretchedness, and to crown all, I was haunted by the thought of the tragedy that had once been acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer with the blue face—he who died at Savannah, singing and shouting for drink—had there, with his own hand, cut down his six accomplices.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
A considerable flight of steps landed them in the wilderness, which was a planted wood of about two acres, and though chiefly of larch and laurel, and beech cut down, and though laid out with too much regularity, was darkness and shade, and natural beauty, compared with the bowling-green and the terrace.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
There have been two or three fine old trees cut down, that grew too near the house, and it opens the prospect amazingly, which makes me think that Repton, or anybody of that sort, would certainly have the avenue at Sotherton down: the avenue that leads from the west front to the top of the hill, you know, turning to Miss Bertram particularly as he spoke.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
