Meaning of cut to the quick | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To hurt a person deeply, especially emotionally.
   figuratively, transitive
2. To incisively discuss the underlying sensitive or unpleasant root of a given topic.
   figuratively
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cut, quick.

Equivalents

Examples

“I was cut to the quick at the idea of having lost the inestimable privilege of listening to the gifted Kurtz.”

“But you must remember that we were boys together, and a fellow naturally confides in a chap he was boys together with. Anyway, be that as it may, he poured out his soul to me, and he hadn't been pouring long before I was able to see that he was cut to the quick. His blood pressure was high, his eye rolled in what they call a fine frenzy, and he was death-where-is-thy-sting-ing like nobody's business.”

“Alfar's analysis cuts to the quick of the socioeconomic structures that underlie marriage, primogeniture, monarchy, and imperialism.”

CEFR level