Word.ws English Dictionary

cutting one's losses

cutting one's losses is the present participle and gerund of cut one's losses.

Meaning of cut one's losses

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

Questions about cutting one's losses

What is cutting one's losses the present participle and gerund of?
Cutting one's losses is the present participle and gerund of cut one's losses.

Words near cutting one's losses in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cutting one's losses (page history and authors); 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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