Whiteisms
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Etymology Journal ยท C

Cut to the chase

Meaning

To get straight to the important point without wasting time on unnecessary details. It is a demand for efficiency in communication.

Direct, efficient

Used in a sentence

  • Stop beating around the bush and just cut to the chase: do we have the budget or not?
  • He cut to the chase and told us exactly what needed to be done.
  • Let us cut to the chase so we can get home for dinner.

The backstory

This comes from the early days of silent cinema, where silent films were famous for their action sequences and chase scenes. Producers would often instruct editors to 'cut to the chase' to keep the audience interested.

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