cut down to size

Definitions

1. 1

   To humble or humiliate, especially someone or something that is perceived as overly…

   To humble or humiliate, especially someone or something that is perceived as overly domineering or too proud.

   • The war was seen by the Foreign Office as a golden opportunity to undo the UN Partition Resolution and cut Israel down to size'.
   • The system cut everybody down to size. I felt small and vulnerable.
   • If Arthur Oliphant's aim had been to cut them down to size, it worked: photographs taken at Somerville College in 1888 show Bamba and her sister looking diffident.
2. 2

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cut, down, size.

   • There is, however, another general approach to cutting the potential client population down to size: establish criteria, grounded in the Bank's basic strategy, that restrict the range of enterprises that the Bank tries to reach.
   • As the plastic moves between the stationary and rotating blades it is cut down to size.

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