Word.ws English Dictionary

cut-and-dried

cut-and-dried is the alternative form of cut and dried.

Meaning of cut and dried

Adjective

cut and dried (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Simple, straightforward, clear, or certain.
    • Take care when guessing, since problems do not always have cut-and-dried answers.
  2. (idiomatic) Decided, not open to change.
    • Willy: […] In those days there was personality in it. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it's all cut and dried, and there's no chance for bringing friendship to bear—or personality.1949, Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, act 2
    Synonyms:
    set, settled
  3. (idiomatic, obsolete) Lacking freshness or spontaneity.

Questions about cut-and-dried

What is cut-and-dried the alternative form of?
Cut-and-dried is the alternative form of cut and dried.

Words near cut-and-dried in the dictionary

  1. cut with a knife and fork
  2. cut work
  3. cut works
  4. cut-and-come-again
  5. cut-and-cover
  6. cut-and-dried
  7. cut-and-paste
  8. cut-and-run
  9. cut-and-runs
  10. cut-and-shut
  11. cut-and-shuts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cut-and-dried (page history and authors); cut and dried (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cut-and-dried.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cut-and-dried. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.