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Cutthroat
//ˈkʌtθɹoʊt// adj, noun
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Involving the cutting of throats.
- 2 Of or relating to a card game where everyone plays for him or herself rather than playing with a partner.
"He found that playing cutthroat Spades was much more difficult than playing with a partner."
- 3 Ruthlessly competitive, dog-eat-dog.
"Law is a cutthroat business, you always have to look out to see who is trying to outdo you."
Adjective
- 1 ruthless in competition wordnet
Noun
- 1 A murderer who slits the throats of victims. countable, uncountable
- 2 someone who murders by cutting the victim's throat wordnet
- 3 An unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person. countable, uncountable
"The jail had not housed a white criminal in over four years, and there is seldom a prisoner of any kind, the Sheriff being a lazy no-good, prone to take his ease with a bottle of liquor, and let trouble-makers and thieves, even the most dangerous type of cutthroats, run free and wild."
- 4 A three-player pocket billiards game where the object is to be the last player with at least one ball still on the table. uncountable
- 5 Ellipsis of cutthroat compound (“an agentive-instrumental verb-noun compound word”). abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
"Children go through a phase of compound acquisition in which they invent cutthroats spontaneously before dropping the habit again."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From cut + throat.
Etymology 2
From cut + throat.
See also for "cutthroat"
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