Word.ws English Dictionary

measure twice, cut once

measure twice, cut once is the alternative form of measure twice and cut once.

Meaning of measure twice and cut once

Proverb

measure twice and cut once

  1. (literally) One should double-check one's measurements for accuracy before cutting a piece of wood; otherwise it may be necessary to cut again, wasting time and material.
    • Look at Carpenters! . . . In old times it was a proverb "Measure twice, and cut once."1872, “Dressmaking”, in Hall's Journal of Health, volume 19, number 12, page 280
  2. (broadly, figuratively) Plan and prepare in a careful, thorough manner before taking action.
    • Mr. Paz noted that since the onset of the credit crisis, eBay, like other companies, hasn’t been able to "measure twice and cut once."2008 November 9, Hilary Johnson, “Mergers rattle bank relations”, in Financial Week, retrieved 09 Nov 2008

Questions about measure twice, cut once

What is measure twice, cut once the alternative form of?
Measure twice, cut once is the alternative form of measure twice and cut once.

Words near measure twice, cut once in the dictionary

  1. measure swords with
  2. measure the drapes
  3. measure theories
  4. measure theory
  5. measure twice and cut once
  6. measure twice, cut once
  7. measure up
  8. measure word
  9. measure words
  10. measureable
  11. measurebate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: measure twice, cut once (page history and authors); measure twice and cut once (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: “measure twice, cut once.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/measure_twice%2C_cut_once. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.