cut corners

Definitions

1. To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or other rules of the road.
2. To do a less-than-thorough or incomplete job; to do something poorly; to take inappropriate shortcuts.
   idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] but I believe⟳ the old man did not ride⟳ fair, as he cut⟳ corners and joined in with them again […]”

“The guy who built the fence cut⟳ corners when sinking the posts, and the fence fell over in the last⟳ storm.”

“Do you know⟳ why Wendy's has square burgers? Because they don't cut⟳ corners.”

“To obtain⟳ that data, tech companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta have⟳ cut⟳ corners, ignored corporate policies and debated bending the law, according to an examination by The New York Times.”

CEFR level