"cut both ways" meaning in English

See cut both ways in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-cut both ways.ogg [Australia] Forms: cuts both ways [present, singular, third-person], cutting both ways [participle, present], cut both ways [participle, past], cut both ways [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|cut<,,cut> both ways}} cut both ways (third-person singular simple present cuts both ways, present participle cutting both ways, simple past and past participle cut both ways)
  1. To have both benefits and drawbacks.
    Sense id: en-cut_both_ways-en-verb-X751K-G3 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 39 19
  2. To have implications for something as well as its counterpart.
    Sense id: en-cut_both_ways-en-verb-3-inPpQE Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 39 19
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cut, both, ways. Related terms: double-edged, two-edged, cruel mistress
    Sense id: en-cut_both_ways-en-verb-YgeMIiSg Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 39 19

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for cut both ways meaning in English (4.4kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cuts both ways",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cutting both ways",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cut both ways",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cut both ways",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cut<,,cut> both ways"
      },
      "expansion": "cut both ways (third-person singular simple present cuts both ways, present participle cutting both ways, simple past and past participle cut both ways)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "42 39 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "March 10 2012, New Zealand Herald, Michele Hewitson interview: Ben Fouhyhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10791043",
          "text": "A redundant observation about Ben Fouhy: It's not easy being him. \"No, not really. But that cuts both ways you know, that affords me the opportunities, the highs and lows, the heights and depths that perhaps other people don't ... experience.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have both benefits and drawbacks."
      ],
      "id": "en-cut_both_ways-en-verb-X751K-G3",
      "links": [
        [
          "benefit",
          "benefit"
        ],
        [
          "drawback",
          "drawback"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "42 39 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009 June, Emmanuel Amiot, “Discrete Fourier Transform and Bach’s Good Temperament”, in Music Theory Online, volume 15, number 2, →DOI",
          "text": "Readers are invited at this point to listen to the pleasant sound of the recordings in LT [Lehman’s temperament], which can be found on this page. Together with the record value of MSS [Music Sameness of Scales], this makes a convincing case for Lehman’s hypothesis. But arguments, like a razor,(5) cut both ways: some lesser known temperament might achieve a better MSS than LT",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 October 27, Charlie Brennan, Kevin Vaughan, “DNA in doubt: New analysis challenges DA's exoneration of Ramseys”, in Loveland Reporter Herald, archived from the original on 2016-10-29",
          "text": "And the findings could cut both ways. / \"It's certainly possible that an intruder was responsible for the murder, but I don't think that the DNA evidence proves it,\" said William C. Thompson […] Similarly, the findings don't implicate or exonerate anyone in the family.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 November 4, Andrew Cohen, Sean II, “Time for Political Disruption”, in Bleeding Heart Libertarians, retrieved 2021-03-09, Comments",
          "text": "[…] It may be tempting to criticize my analogy because it assumes a case where one vote can actually influence the outcome. That would be fair, of course, but it would also cut both ways. / If you're vote can't be strategic because it is statistically meaningless, then neither can it be moral. / In which case both arguments - vote your conscience & vote your strategy - should be dumped in favor of a third: don't vote.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "This argument cuts both ways.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have implications for something as well as its counterpart."
      ],
      "id": "en-cut_both_ways-en-verb-3-inPpQE",
      "links": [
        [
          "implication",
          "implication"
        ],
        [
          "counterpart",
          "counterpart"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "42 39 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cut, both, ways."
      ],
      "id": "en-cut_both_ways-en-verb-YgeMIiSg",
      "links": [
        [
          "cut",
          "cut#English"
        ],
        [
          "both",
          "both#English"
        ],
        [
          "ways",
          "ways#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "34 3 63",
          "word": "double-edged"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "34 3 63",
          "word": "two-edged"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "34 3 63",
          "word": "cruel mistress"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-cut both ways.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bd/En-au-cut_both_ways.ogg/En-au-cut_both_ways.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/En-au-cut_both_ways.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cut both ways"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English idioms",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cuts both ways",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cutting both ways",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cut both ways",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cut both ways",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cut<,,cut> both ways"
      },
      "expansion": "cut both ways (third-person singular simple present cuts both ways, present participle cutting both ways, simple past and past participle cut both ways)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "double-edged"
    },
    {
      "word": "two-edged"
    },
    {
      "word": "cruel mistress"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "March 10 2012, New Zealand Herald, Michele Hewitson interview: Ben Fouhyhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10791043",
          "text": "A redundant observation about Ben Fouhy: It's not easy being him. \"No, not really. But that cuts both ways you know, that affords me the opportunities, the highs and lows, the heights and depths that perhaps other people don't ... experience.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have both benefits and drawbacks."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "benefit",
          "benefit"
        ],
        [
          "drawback",
          "drawback"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009 June, Emmanuel Amiot, “Discrete Fourier Transform and Bach’s Good Temperament”, in Music Theory Online, volume 15, number 2, →DOI",
          "text": "Readers are invited at this point to listen to the pleasant sound of the recordings in LT [Lehman’s temperament], which can be found on this page. Together with the record value of MSS [Music Sameness of Scales], this makes a convincing case for Lehman’s hypothesis. But arguments, like a razor,(5) cut both ways: some lesser known temperament might achieve a better MSS than LT",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 October 27, Charlie Brennan, Kevin Vaughan, “DNA in doubt: New analysis challenges DA's exoneration of Ramseys”, in Loveland Reporter Herald, archived from the original on 2016-10-29",
          "text": "And the findings could cut both ways. / \"It's certainly possible that an intruder was responsible for the murder, but I don't think that the DNA evidence proves it,\" said William C. Thompson […] Similarly, the findings don't implicate or exonerate anyone in the family.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 November 4, Andrew Cohen, Sean II, “Time for Political Disruption”, in Bleeding Heart Libertarians, retrieved 2021-03-09, Comments",
          "text": "[…] It may be tempting to criticize my analogy because it assumes a case where one vote can actually influence the outcome. That would be fair, of course, but it would also cut both ways. / If you're vote can't be strategic because it is statistically meaningless, then neither can it be moral. / In which case both arguments - vote your conscience & vote your strategy - should be dumped in favor of a third: don't vote.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "This argument cuts both ways.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have implications for something as well as its counterpart."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "implication",
          "implication"
        ],
        [
          "counterpart",
          "counterpart"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cut, both, ways."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "cut",
          "cut#English"
        ],
        [
          "both",
          "both#English"
        ],
        [
          "ways",
          "ways#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-cut both ways.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bd/En-au-cut_both_ways.ogg/En-au-cut_both_ways.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/En-au-cut_both_ways.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cut both ways"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.