“To cut it well” means to barely succeed, with origins unknown. “To cut something fine” refers to cutting something thin and taking advantage of a slim chance. It can describe procrastination or physical situations. Other idioms with similar meanings include “you got away with it” and “the skin of your teeth”. “To scrape” is another verb used in similar idioms.
“To cut it well” in English means to be successful at something, with the implication that failure was imminent. In other words, if someone “cuts it right,” they simply succeeded in doing something, but almost ended up failing. This type of idiom establishes a way to talk about a barely successful event, something that, in idiomatic noun terms, might be called a “close recall.” The origin of this phrase is somewhat unknown.
The use of the phrase “to cut something fine” refers to an alternative use of the word “fine,” which is more common in some traditional English-speaking societies than in others. The general meaning of the word “fine” refers to something positive, but there is also an alternative meaning related to thinness, where “to cut well” means to cut it thin. Here the idiomatic use of the word “end” becomes evident; if someone “cut well” and barely avoided a crash, he’s taken advantage of a “slim” window of opportunity or chance of success.
This idiom is often used to describe procrastination. For example, someone might tell someone else “you really took your time and waited until the last minute – you cut well”. Here they are emphasizing the idea that the person had a better chance of success, but he chose to squander it by not realizing previous opportunities. This phrase can also be used in more physical situations, such as when someone successfully driving their vehicle through a narrow lane “cuts it right.”
The English language has a number of other idiomatic phrases to describe the same kind of idea. Some might say “you got away with it” or “you barely made it”. The cryptic phrase “the skin of your teeth” has a similar meaning to “cut it right” – it means that the person was barely able to do something or achieve a goal or objective.
Another set of idioms with the same meaning focuses on the verb “to scrape”. This descriptive verb is useful in many idioms because it evokes such a concrete visual image. Someone might say, for example, that someone “had a close scratch” or, in the verb form, “scraped from”. Both have similar meanings to the above idioms.
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