cut corners | Idiomator

Meaning: To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or otherrules of the road.1882, Dan Seffert, quoted in “Half Hours with Dan Seffert”, inBaily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Volume 39,page 275:[…]but I believe the old man did not ride fair, as hecut cornersand joined in with them again[…]; (idiomatic)To do a less-than-thoroughorincompletejob; to do something poorly; to take inappropriateshortcuts.Synonyms:skimp,takeshort cuts,follow the path of least resistance,take the easy way out,(slang)half-assThe guy who built the fencecut cornerswhen sinking the posts, and the fence fell over in the last storm.Do you know why Wendy's has square burgers? Because they don'tcut corners.2024April 6, Cade Metz, Cecilia Kang, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson, Nico Grant, “How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.”, inThe New York Times‎[1],→ISSN, archived fromthe originalon7 April 2024:To obtain that data, tech companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta havecut corners, ignored corporate policies and debated bending the law, according to an examination by The New York Times.

Examples:

EN: I've pulled strings and I've cut corners so that you and your crowd could get away with murder in this town. I'm sick of it.
ES: He movido hilos y he tomado atajos para que tú y tu pandilla podais saliros con la vuestra en esta ciudad.
EN: All day I'm figuring how to cut corners... and all of a sudden we're riding around in cabs!
ES: Yo me pasaba la vida intentando ahorrar y él, de repente, quería ir en taxi.
EN: With a large family, you gotta cut corners.
ES: - Seremos segadores.
EN: But if the president of your company is willing to cut corners and make an exception in this case, I will cancel the policy.
ES: Pero si el presidente de su empresa está dispuesto a recortar gastos y hacer una excepción en este caso, cancelaré la póliza.
EN: And I'm sure that mostly all companies are willing to cut corners at one time or another.
ES: Y estoy seguro de que la mayoría de las empresas están dispuestas a hacer recortes en un momento u otro.
EN: Especially if you're trying to cut corners.
ES: En especial si uno anda apurado.
EN: Don't cut corners on me.
ES: No me venga con ahorros.
EN: - Look, there are ways to cut corners.
ES: - Miren, hay medios de reducir gastos.
EN: We've got to cut corners.
ES: Hay que reducir los gastos.
EN: He must cut corners.
ES: Debe cortar las esquinas.
EN: I won't cut corners on the bonuses.
ES: No voy a masticar bonos.
EN: Did you encourage other subcontractors to cut corners?
ES: ¿Pediste que redujeran gastos?
EN: You can't cut corners.
ES: Pero no con mercaderías baratas.
EN: They forced me to cut corners.
ES: Me obligaron a tomar atajos.
EN: If I make a strategic decision to cut corners, to throw the book away, that's my decision.
ES: ¡Si escojo la estrategia de tomar el camino más corto... de cambiar las reglas, es mi decisión!

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