What does "cut corners" mean?

To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or other rules of the road.

Cut corners

Common synonyms include: blink, carefully ignore, cold shoulder, cold-shoulder, curtail expenses, cut a corner.

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Verb

1
To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or other rules of the road.
"[…] but I believe the old man did not ride fair, as he cut corners and joined in with them again […]"
2
do something the cheapest or easiest way wordnet
3
To do a less-than-thorough or incomplete job; to do something poorly; to take inappropriate shortcuts. idiomatic
"The guy who built the fence cut corners when sinking the posts, and the fence fell over in the last storm."

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