cutoff

See also: cut-off and cut off

English

Alternative forms

• cut off
• cut-off

Etymology

Deverbal from cut off.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈtɒf/
• (Conservative RP) IPA^(key): /kəˈtɔːf/
• (General American) enPR: ŏf, IPA^(key): /kəˈtɔf/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /kəˈtɑf/, [kəˈɾɑf]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /kəˈtɔːf/, [kəˈɾɔːf]

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

cutoff (plural cutoffs)

1. The point at which something terminates or to which it is limited.
   1. (medicine) A cutoff point (cutoff value, threshold value, cutpoint): the amount set by an operational definition as the transition point between states in a discretization or dichotomization.
2. A road, path or channel that provides a shorter or quicker path; a shortcut.
3. A device that stops the flow of a current.
4. A device for saving steam by regulating its admission to the cylinder (see quotation at cut-off).
5. A cessation in a flow or activity.
   • 1985, Alfred Brenner, The TV Scriptwriter's Handbook, page 144:

     If the treatment is approved, a script is written. If the script is approved, it goes into production. But this is usually a long and painful process. A cutoff can take place (and often does) at any step along the way.

6. (poker) The player who acts directly before the player on the button pre-flop.
7. (fashion, chiefly in the plural) Shorts made by cutting off the legs from trousers.
   • 2021 July 22, Guy Trebay, “Suddenly It’s Bare Season”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     […] I spotted through the window a young woman casually crossing Astor Place wearing a pair of cutoffs, some sandals and — it is fully legal to do this — naked above the waist.

8. (fashion) A sleeveless shirt, especially one made by cutting the sleeves off of a t-shirt.
9. (journalism) A horizontal line separating sections of the page.
   • 1919, The Washington Newspaper:

     Light-face type, cutoffs, borders and rules are the universal plan. No black body matter and almost no black headlines appear.

Derived terms

• avulsive cutoff
• cutoff low
• cutoff time
• final order cutoff
• Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff

Related terms

• cutback
• cutdown
• offcut

Translations

point at which something terminates or to which it is limited

Bulgarian: изключване (bg) (izključvane), прекъсване (bg) (prekǎsvane) Finnish: päätepiste (fi) French: seuil (fr), de seuil, de coupure Italian: soglia (it), di soglia, di taglio Portuguese: término (pt), limite (pt) Romanian: separare (punct de...) f, întrerupere (punct de...) f Russian: выключе́ние (ru) n (vyključénije) Spanish: corte (es) m

road, path of channel that provides a shorter or quicker path — see shortcut

Adjective

cutoff (not comparable)

1. Constituting a limit or ending.
2. (psychology, medicine) Designating a score or value demarcating the presence (or absence) of a disease, condition, or similar.

Anagrams

• offcut