cut down

phraseB12 meaningsNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To cut down is to do or use less of something. Sweets, spending, or cigarettes.

It takes on for the thing being reduced, so cutting down on sugar is the standard phrase, and it is gentler than giving up entirely, which is why doctors suggest it first. There is a literal sense of felling, since cutting down a tree removes it. And there is a grim old use meaning to kill, which survives in phrases about being cut down in their prime. Cut back does the same job for budgets.

Definitions of cut down

1phrasecut downTo reduce the amount of something you use or do.B1
“He is trying to cut down on coffee.”
2phrasefellTo fell a tree or plant.B1
“They had to cut down the old sycamore.”

Also accepted in games: reduce, cut back

Practised in Phrasal Verbs, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 9 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

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