offcut

UK/ˈɒfkʌt/

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — cut sits at #207Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: offcuts

An offcut is the piece left over after a length is cut to size. A useful offcut, keep the offcuts, a pile of offcuts.

Timber yards and stone masons sell them cheaply, and a box of offcuts is where every small project starts. Planning cuts to minimise them is a real skill and has a name in industry, which is nesting.

Definitions of offcut

1nounoffcutThe piece left over after a length is cut to size.C1
“He used an offcut from the kitchen worktop to make a chopping board.”

offcut is a piece.

Where it comes from

Off plus cut, recorded in Middle English as ofcutten, meaning to cut away.

Middle English
ofcutten
English, today
offcut

From Middle English ofcutten, of-kitten, equivalent to off + cut.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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