英语阅读：Doesn't cut it?
Reader question: This – Sorry doesn't cut it – is a headline. But what doesit mean?
My comments: It means merely saying "I'm sorry" isn't good enough. Whoever
feels sorry should do more to pacify those he's saying sorry to.
"Doesn't cut it" is an idiom – and a nice little expression to learn. If
something doesn't cut it, it means that it's not quite up to the standard
required to accomplish a particular task. This is a good idiom to learn because
it is so simple.
I have a hunch (only a hunch) that the expression is a variation from the
age-old English idiom "doesn't cut the mustard" , which means the same thing –
that something doesn't quite work to one's satisfaction. This phrase may have
come from the fact that mustard is easier to cut than butter at the table,
meaning it's an easier job. If something doesn't even cut the mustard, it is
hence no good. Some say the expression may have derived from the American cowboy
expression "proper mustard" , meaning the genuine thing, the best. Others trace
it to traditional mustard making, in which a special knife is used to "cut it"
(whatever that means) during the course of its making. If the knife "doesn't cut
it" , the overall quality of the finished product is somehow affected. If the
knife "cuts it fine" , on the other hand, the finished product is tasty and
good...
Does my explanation cuts it fine with you?
I know, I know, I know. Explaining English is a thankless task. Never mind.
Just remember that "doesn't cut it" means the same as "doesn't cut the mustard"
. In fact remembering "doesn't cut it" alone will do. It's much simpler than
"doesn't cut the mustard" and is much more popular anyway. It is on the strength
of its simplicity that I advise you to master it – it is good everyday
English.
By the by, the expression is more often used in the negative than in the
positive. That is, if something "cuts it" , say it works. Only say "doesn't cut
it" when it doesn't, indeed, quite cut it.
Here are more examples:
1. Good figures alone don't cut it in depressed times No pain, no gain. As
the credit crisis took its inevitable toll, the three once high-flying shares
unceremoniously dumped from the No Pain, No Gain portfolio have, not
surprisingly, failed to recapture any of their old sparkle. And the delivery of
encouraging profits has again been contemptuously ignored by the stock market. -
The Independent, April 19, 2008.
2. Same old contentdoesn't cut it for online readers Sadly, far too many
newspapers continue to treat their websites as simply the online version of
their printed papers. I thought that it was widely understood at this point that
you will never grow your online audience if all your do is reprint only what is
in your daily newspaper. - yonigreenbaum.com, March 3, 2008.
3. Will Clinton stand by her statement despite all evidence to the
contrary? This tactic has failed her in the dodging-bullets-in-Bosnia incident
and the press has gained courage in crying out the-Emporer-Has-No-Clothes,
though it took Sinbad, a comedian, to call it out first, doing the work that
journalists are paid to do. What held back the countless journalists who were on
the same trip from reporting the discrepancy first with their own selves as
witnesses? Was it the editorial boards at news organisations? Or perhaps it is
true that "just words" doesn't quite cut it nowadays – truth needs video. -
Texas: and the winner is Obama? Clinton? nowpublic.com, March 28, 2008.
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