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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

cutthroat en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • [ˈkʊtθɹoːt] (Northern-England)
  • /ˈkʌtθɾot/ (Scotland)
  • /ˈkɐtθɹəʉt/ (Australia)
  • /ˈkʌtθɹəʊt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ˈkɐtθɹɐʉt/ (New-Zealand)
  • [ˈkʊtθɹoʊt] (Northern-England)
  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ˈkʌtθɹoʊt/ (US)
  • /ˈkʌtθɾoːt/ (Wales)
  • /ˈkʊtθɹəʊt/ (Northern-England)

Etymology

From cut + throat.

Meanings

  1. Involving the cutting of throats.
  2. Of or relating to a card game where everyone plays for him or herself rather than playing with a partner.
    • He found that playing cutthroat Spades was much more difficult than playing with a partner.
  3. Ruthlessly competitive, dog-eat-dog.
    • More specifically, Scrabblers are diehard, competitive, and occasionally cutthroat players who treat the game like it's chess or baseball... 2010, Kate Stevens, Freak Nation, page 159:
    • Law is a cutthroat business, you always have to look out to see who is trying to outdo you.
    • While these esports are often framed as battles of mental strategies and mechanical skills, how players juggle their hundreds, or thousands, of simultaneously ticking clocks and timers defines their ability to succeed in cutthroat competitions. 2023 December 1, Evelynn Kersting, “GAMES AND TIME”, in University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, page 9, archived from the original on 06 Jun 2025:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
most cutthroat Degree=Sup lexicographic
cut throat alternative lexicographic
more cutthroat Degree=Cmp lexicographic
cut-throat alternative lexicographic

Relateds

cutthroat eel

Translations (9)

de rücksichtslos (very competitive, dog-eat-dog) · es canallesco (very competitive, dog-eat-dog) · hu gyilkos (very competitive, dog-eat-dog) · hu késhegyre menő (very competitive, dog-eat-dog) · sv mördande (very competitive, dog-eat-dog) · de halsabschneiderisch (very competitive, dog-eat-dog) · hu öldöklő (very competitive, dog-eat-dog) · de hemmungslos (very competitive, dog-eat-dog) · de mörderisch (very competitive, dog-eat-dog)

cutthroat en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • [ˈkʊtθɹoːt] (Northern-England)
  • /ˈkʌtθɾot/ (Scotland)
  • /ˈkɐtθɹəʉt/ (Australia)
  • /ˈkʌtθɹəʊt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ˈkɐtθɹɐʉt/ (New-Zealand)
  • [ˈkʊtθɹoʊt] (Northern-England)
  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ˈkʌtθɹoʊt/ (US)
  • /ˈkʌtθɾoːt/ (Wales)
  • /ˈkʊtθɹəʊt/ (Northern-England)

Etymology

From cut + throat.

Meanings

  1. (countable, uncountable) A murderer who slits the throats of victims.
  2. (countable, uncountable) An unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person.
    • The jail had not housed a white criminal in over four years, and there is seldom a prisoner of any kind, the Sheriff being a lazy no-good, prone to take his ease with a bottle of liquor, and let trouble-makers and thieves, even the most dangerous type of cutthroats, run free and wild. 1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 1:
  3. (uncountable) A three-player pocket billiards game where the object is to be the last player with at least one ball still on the table.
  4. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable) Ellipsis of cutthroat compound (“an agentive-instrumental verb-noun compound word”).
    • Children go through a phase of compound acquisition in which they invent cutthroats spontaneously before dropping the habit again. 2015 May 22, Stan Carey, “The Kick-butt World of Cutthroat Compounds”, in Slate Lexicon Valley:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
cut-throat alternative lexicographic
cutthroats Number=Plur lexicographic
cut throat alternative lexicographic

Deriveds

cutthroat razor · cutthroat trout

Translations (26)

it tagliagole (murderer) · uk головорі́з (murderer) · ru головоре́з (murderer) · es canalla (unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person) · be галаварэ́з (murderer) · cs hrdlořez (murderer) · bg главоре́з (unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person) · kk баскесер (murderer) · lv rīkļurāvējs (murderer) · pl bandyta (unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person) · pl rzezimieszek (unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person) · pl zbir (unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person) · bg главоре́з (murderer) · sk hrdlorez (murderer) · pt degolador (murderer) · es degollador (murderer) · sv mördare (murderer) · az başkəsən (murderer) · fr coupe-jarret (murderer) · de Halsabschneider (murderer) · pl rzezimieszek (murderer) · de Halsabschneider (unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person) · pl nożownik (murderer) · ru головоре́з (unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person) · ka ყასაბი (murderer) · uk горлорі́з (murderer)