Word.ws English Dictionary

cut a figure

cut a figure verb: to present an image; to make an impression.

Verb

cut a figure (third-person singular simple present cuts a figure, present participle cutting a figure, simple past and past participle cut a figure)

  1. (idiomatic) To present an image; to make an impression.
    • To cut a fine/sorry figure.
    • Your desire was to cut a figure in the Fashionable World. Well, to-day you have your wish—to-day you are famous.1913, Jeffery Farnol, chapter 57, in The Amateur Gentleman

Forms of cut a figure

third-person singular presentcuts a figure
present participlecutting a figure
past participlecut a figure
pastcut a figure

Questions about cut a figure

What does cut a figure mean?
Cut a figure means to present an image; to make an impression.
What part of speech is cut a figure?
Cut a figure is a verb.
What is the past tense of cut a figure?
The past tense of cut a figure is cut a figure.

Words near cut a figure in the dictionary

  1. cut
  2. cut a caper
  3. cut a dash
  4. cut a deal
  5. cut a feather
  6. cut a figure
  7. cut a rug
  8. cut a shine
  9. cut a swath
  10. cut a swathe
  11. cut a wide swath

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cut a figure (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-cut a figure.ogg.

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