Word.ws English Dictionary

cut the mustard

Syllables: cut the mus·tardUK/kʌt ðə ˈmʌstəd/US/kʌt ðə ˈmʌstəɹd/

cut the mustard verb: to achieve the expected standard; to be effective or good enough; to suffice.

Verb

cut the mustard (third-person singular simple present cuts the mustard, present participle cutting the mustard, simple past and past participle cut the mustard)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To achieve the expected standard; to be effective or good enough; to suffice.
    • Give me the bigger hammer. This little one just doesn’t cut the mustard.
    • By nature and doctrines I am addicted to the habit of discovering choice places wherein to feed. So I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard. I found a restaurant tent just opened up by an outfit that had drifted in on the tail of the boom.1907, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Cupid à la Carte”, in Heart of the West, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company for Review of Reviews Co., →OCLC, page 163
    Synonyms:
    be up to par, be up to scratch, be up to snuff, cut it, hack it, make the cut, make the grade, measure up, pass muster

cut the mustard meaning in Tamil and Arabic

cut the mustard in Tamil

வெற்றி அடைதல், எதிர்பார்ப்புகளை நிறைவேற்றுதல், போட்டியிடத் தகுதி அடைதல்

cut the mustard in Arabic

to achieve the expected standard; to be effective or good enough — see also suffice
يفي بالغرض

Synonyms of cut the mustard

All synonyms of cut the mustard

Forms of cut the mustard

third-person singular presentcuts the mustard
present participlecutting the mustard
past participlecut the mustard
pastcut the mustard

Origin of cut the mustard

From cut (“to exhibit (a quality)”) + the + mustard (“(originally US slang) something adding spice or zest to a situation; something setting the standard”).

Words that rhyme with cut the mustard

Questions about cut the mustard

What does cut the mustard mean?
Cut the mustard means to achieve the expected standard; to be effective or good enough; to suffice.
What is cut the mustard in Tamil?
Cut the mustard in Tamil is வெற்றி அடைதல், எதிர்பார்ப்புகளை நிறைவேற்றுதல், போட்டியிடத் தகுதி அடைதல். See Cut the mustard meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cut the mustard?
Cut the mustard is a verb.
How do you pronounce cut the mustard?
Cut the mustard is pronounced /kʌt ðə ˈmʌstəd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of cut the mustard?
The past tense of cut the mustard is cut the mustard.

Words near cut the mustard in the dictionary

  1. cut the crap
  2. cut the fool
  3. cut the Gordian knot
  4. cut the ground from under someone's feet
  5. cut the knot
  6. cut the mustard
  7. cut the muster
  8. cut the pigeon wing
  9. cut the rug
  10. cut the shit
  11. cut the umbilical cord

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cut the mustard (page history and authors); cut the mustard (Tamil Wiktionary) (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 the mustard.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cut the mustard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cut_the_mustard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.