Word.ws English Dictionary

cut and thrust

cut and thrust noun: the use of vehement arguments.

Noun

cut and thrust (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) The use of vehement arguments.
    • He never got used to the cut and thrust of political debate.
    • He likes the cut and thrust, the falls, bruises, and dry blows of an argument: as to any good or useful results that may come of the amicable settling of it, any one is welcome to them for him.1821–1822, William Hazlitt, “Character of Cobbett”, in Table-Talk; or, Original Essays, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Warren; Henry Colburn and Co.

Examples of cut and thrust in a sentence

  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:cut and thrust.
  • This might all simply be the cut and thrust of business.2022 December 14, Philip Haigh, “Open access services on their way to South Wales”, in RAIL, number 972, page 54:

Forms of cut and thrust

alternative formcut-and-thrust

Origin of cut and thrust

A metaphor referring to swordplay.

Questions about cut and thrust

What does cut and thrust mean?
Cut and thrust means the use of vehement arguments.
How do you use cut and thrust in a sentence?
For quotations using this term, see Citations:cut and thrust.
What part of speech is cut and thrust?
Cut and thrust is a noun.

Words near cut and thrust in the dictionary

  1. cut and dried
  2. cut and dry
  3. cut and paste
  4. cut and run
  5. cut and sew
  6. cut and thrust
  7. cut autograph
  8. cut autographs
  9. cut away
  10. cut away one's soul
  11. cut back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cut and thrust (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-cut and thrust.ogg.

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