Word.ws English Dictionary

have one's work cut out

have one's work cut out is the alternative form of have one's work cut out for one.

Meaning of have one's work cut out for one

Verb

have one's work cut out for one (third-person singular simple present has one's work cut out for one, present participle having one's work cut out for one, simple past and past participle had one's work cut out for one)

  1. (idiomatic) To face a large task or project.
    • If he plans to translate all the idioms, he has his work cut out for him.

Forms of have one's work cut out

third-person singular presenthas one's work cut out
present participlehaving one's work cut out
past participlehad one's work cut out
pasthad one's work cut out

Questions about have one's work cut out

What is have one's work cut out the alternative form of?
Have one's work cut out is the alternative form of have one's work cut out for one.

Words near have one's work cut out in the dictionary

  1. have one's Weetabix
  2. have one's whole life ahead of one
  3. have one's wicked way with
  4. have one's wig snatched
  5. have one's wits about one
  6. have one's work cut out
  7. have one's work cut out for one
  8. have other fish to fry
  9. have other ideas
  10. have out
  11. have over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have one's work cut out (page history and authors); have one's work cut out for one (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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