"cut one's cloth to suit one's purse" meaning in English

See cut one's cloth to suit one's purse in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: cuts one's cloth to suit one's purse [present, singular, third-person], cutting one's cloth to suit one's purse [participle, present], cut one's cloth to suit one's purse [participle, past], cut one's cloth to suit one's purse [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|cut<,,cut> one's cloth to suit one's purse}} cut one's cloth to suit one's purse (third-person singular simple present cuts one's cloth to suit one's purse, present participle cutting one's cloth to suit one's purse, simple past and past participle cut one's cloth to suit one's purse)
  1. (idiomatic) To settle for less when money or resources are limited. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: cut one's coat according to one's cloth
    Sense id: en-cut_one's_cloth_to_suit_one's_purse-en-verb-1Ch5mkV- Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cuts one's cloth to suit one's purse",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cutting one's cloth to suit one's purse",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cut one's cloth to suit one's purse",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cut one's cloth to suit one's purse",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cut<,,cut> one's cloth to suit one's purse"
      },
      "expansion": "cut one's cloth to suit one's purse (third-person singular simple present cuts one's cloth to suit one's purse, present participle cutting one's cloth to suit one's purse, simple past and past participle cut one's cloth to suit one's purse)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Norman Marsh, Trout Stream Insects of New Zealand, page 189:",
          "text": "A super-educated fish whose purpose seems bent on humiliating us? Or does he cut his cloth to suit-his purse, becoming choosy when the occasion allows, returning to catholic tastes when times are harder?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 December 1, Amanda Hall-Davis, “I took a huge salary hit so I can make my daughters my priority”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "If I had to go back then I would but I “cut my cloth to suit my purse” as my mum would have said and adjust to what I need and not fritter money away.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 August 15, “Gisborne Herald chief reporter to stand for council”, in Gisborne Herald:",
          "text": "We have just got to cut our cloth to suit the purse.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To settle for less when money or resources are limited."
      ],
      "id": "en-cut_one's_cloth_to_suit_one's_purse-en-verb-1Ch5mkV-",
      "links": [
        [
          "settle for",
          "settle for"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "limited",
          "limited"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To settle for less when money or resources are limited."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "cut one's coat according to one's cloth"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cut one's cloth to suit one's purse"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cuts one's cloth to suit one's purse",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cutting one's cloth to suit one's purse",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cut one's cloth to suit one's purse",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cut one's cloth to suit one's purse",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cut<,,cut> one's cloth to suit one's purse"
      },
      "expansion": "cut one's cloth to suit one's purse (third-person singular simple present cuts one's cloth to suit one's purse, present participle cutting one's cloth to suit one's purse, simple past and past participle cut one's cloth to suit one's purse)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "cut one's coat according to one's cloth"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Norman Marsh, Trout Stream Insects of New Zealand, page 189:",
          "text": "A super-educated fish whose purpose seems bent on humiliating us? Or does he cut his cloth to suit-his purse, becoming choosy when the occasion allows, returning to catholic tastes when times are harder?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 December 1, Amanda Hall-Davis, “I took a huge salary hit so I can make my daughters my priority”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "If I had to go back then I would but I “cut my cloth to suit my purse” as my mum would have said and adjust to what I need and not fritter money away.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 August 15, “Gisborne Herald chief reporter to stand for council”, in Gisborne Herald:",
          "text": "We have just got to cut our cloth to suit the purse.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To settle for less when money or resources are limited."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "settle for",
          "settle for"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "limited",
          "limited"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To settle for less when money or resources are limited."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cut one's cloth to suit one's purse"
}

Download raw JSONL data for cut one's cloth to suit one's purse meaning in English (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.