the.com/cutback
The compromise between quitting and admitting you never had a plan.
means A reduction in spending, staff, or activity, typically made in response to tighter budgets or lowered expectations.
from A straightforward compound of 'cut' (to reduce) plus 'back' (to a lesser point), emerging in early-to-mid 20th-century business and government usage as a plain, practical term for trimming budgets or production — no hidden story here, just English doing what it does best: smashing two words together to say exactly what it means.
- origin
- surfing term, before it meant budget pain
- corporate dialect
- never means growth, always means layoffs
- psychology
- feels responsible, functions as regret with a memo