Word.ws English Dictionary

cut one's losses

cut one's losses verb: to discontinue something to put a stop to continued losses after facing that it is unlikely it will ever bear fruit.

Verb

cut one's losses (third-person singular simple present cuts one's losses, present participle cutting one's losses, simple past and past participle cut one's losses)

  1. To discontinue something to put a stop to continued losses after facing that it is unlikely it will ever bear fruit.
    • But our culture has reinforced the belief that a good marriage just happens, and if it doesn't, you should simply cut your losses and move on to the next partner. After all, that's what we see in the movies.2007, Catherine Weber, A Woman's Guide to Overcoming Depression, Baker Books, →ISBN, page 47
    • I mentioned already in this chapter that you need to cut your losses before they drag you down. No matter how much it hurts and no matter how much you believe that you are right, you need to close out a losing position and move on.2011, Ann C. Logue, Day Trading For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 43

Forms of cut one's losses

third-person singular presentcuts one's losses
present participlecutting one's losses
past participlecut one's losses
pastcut one's losses

Questions about cut one's losses

What does cut one's losses mean?
Cut one's losses means to discontinue something to put a stop to continued losses after facing that it is unlikely it will ever bear fruit.
What part of speech is cut one's losses?
Cut one's losses is a verb.
What is the past tense of cut one's losses?
The past tense of cut one's losses is cut one's losses.

Words near cut one's losses in the dictionary

  1. cut one
  2. cut one loose
  3. cut one's cloth to suit one's purse
  4. cut one's coat according to one's cloth
  5. cut one's eyeteeth
  6. cut one's losses
  7. cut one's lucky
  8. cut one's own throat
  9. cut one's stick
  10. cut one's teeth
  11. cut oneself

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cut one's losses (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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