Word.ws English Dictionary

cuts the mustard

cuts the mustard is the third-person singular simple present indicative of cut the mustard.

Meaning of cut the mustard

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.
    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

Questions about cuts the mustard

What is cuts the mustard the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Cuts the mustard is the third-person singular simple present indicative of cut the mustard.

Words near cuts the mustard in the dictionary

  1. cuts the coat according to the cloth
  2. cuts the cord
  3. cuts the fool
  4. cuts the ground from under someone's feet
  5. cuts the knot
  6. cuts the mustard
  7. cuts the pigeon wing
  8. cuts the rug
  9. cuts the shit
  10. cuts the umbilical cord
  11. cuts through

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cuts the mustard (page history and authors); cut the mustard (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: “cuts the mustard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cuts_the_mustard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.