1
: something cut back
2
: reduction
a cutback in funding
cut back; cutting back; cuts back
: to shorten by cutting : prune
1
: to interrupt the sequence of a plot (as of a movie) by introducing events prior to those last presented
2
: cut down
cut back on sugar
Examples of cutback in a Sentence
Verb
we need to cut back the bushes a bit so that the house number is visible from the street
cut back the meeting so everyone could leave early for the long weekend
Recent Examples on the Web
Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald, 29 May 2025
What To Know In a post on X, formerly Twitter, progressive political action committee VoteVets criticized the Trump administration for the cutbacks, as well as the president's senior advisor and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) frontman Elon Musk.
—Aliss Higham, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 May 2025
Andrew R. Chow, Time, 31 May 2025
The dual battlefields capture the feeling of the final act of the best Star Wars movies where the action cut back and forth between a massive space battle and individual heroes slugging it out on the ground.
—Rob Wieland, Forbes.com, 30 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for cutback
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Noun
But those cutbacks aren’t what have county administrators worried.
—Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald, 29 May 2025
What To Know In a post on X, formerly Twitter, progressive political action committee VoteVets criticized the Trump administration for the cutbacks, as well as the president's senior advisor and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) frontman Elon Musk.
—Aliss Higham, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 May 2025
Verb
Demis Hassabis Is Preparing for AI’s Endgame Another parallel can be drawn between Jeff and Amodei, an AI researcher who defected from OpenAI after becoming worried that the company was cutting back its safety measures, and then formed his own company, Anthropic.
—Andrew R. Chow, Time, 31 May 2025
The dual battlefields capture the feeling of the final act of the best Star Wars movies where the action cut back and forth between a massive space battle and individual heroes slugging it out on the ground.
—Rob Wieland, Forbes.com, 30 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for cutback
Cite this Entry
“Cutback.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cutback. Accessed 3 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
cutback
1 of 2 noun
cut·back
ˈkət-ˌbak 
: an act or instance of cutting something back
cut back
2 of 2 verbˈkət-ˈbak
1
2
: to reduce something in amount
cut back on smoking
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