Word.ws English Dictionary

cut and dry

cut and dry 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 dry

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

Words near cut and dry in the dictionary

  1. cut and carved
  2. cut and choose
  3. cut and come again
  4. cut and cover
  5. cut and dried
  6. cut and dry
  7. cut and paste
  8. cut and run
  9. cut and sew
  10. cut and thrust
  11. cut autograph

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cut and dry (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.

Last updated:

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