Word.ws English Dictionary

cut and run

cut and run verb: to cut the anchor cable and not wait to weigh it.

Verb

cut and run (third-person singular simple present cuts and runs, present participle cutting and running, simple past cut and ran, past participle cut and run)

  1. To cut the anchor cable and not wait to weigh it.
  2. (broadly) To hurry away; to escape.
    • “I just say it’s curious, that’s all. Here’s a young man who ought to cut and run, but he doesn’t cut and run. He stays here, and gives us every facility for comparing footmarks.”1925, Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys
    • Gap, the US clothing giant, will not "cut and run" when an international textile agreement ends next year, threatening the closure of hundreds of factories in the developing world, the company's chief executive said last night.2004 November 11, Tobias Webb, quoting Paul Pressler, “Gap pledges not to 'cut and run'”, in The Guardian
  3. To abandon a position as quickly as possible.
    • They held on as long as they could, but when the heavy artillery fire started, they had to cut and run.
    • The President laid out the scenario we face if the United States decides to cut and run.

Examples of cut and run in a sentence

  • Calls to cut and run without paying a penny in the Brexit settlement are unlawful and unethical.2017 May 3, Helena Kennedy, “You can’t just cut and run from Europe, Theresa May – it’s illegal”, in The Guardian:
  • Mr Blair promised that the UK would not "cut and run".2006 December 18, Patrick Wintour, quoting Tony Blair, “UK will not cut and run in fight for democracy, troops told”, in The Guardian:

Forms of cut and run

third-person singular presentcuts and runs
present participlecutting and running
pastcut and ran
past participlecut and run

Words formed from cut and run

Questions about cut and run

What does cut and run mean?
Cut and run means to cut the anchor cable and not wait to weigh it.
How do you use cut and run in a sentence?
Calls to cut and run without paying a penny in the Brexit settlement are unlawful and unethical.
What part of speech is cut and run?
Cut and run is a verb.
What is the past tense of cut and run?
The past tense of cut and run is cut and ran.

Words near cut and run in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cut and run (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 run.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cut_and_run. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.