1. Home
2. Idioms
3. cut both ways

cut both ways

---

---

cut both ways

to affect both sides of an issue equally. Remember that your suggestion that costs should be shared cuts both ways. Your division will have to reduce its budget as well. If our side cannot take along supporters to the game, then yours cannot either. The rule has to cut both ways.

See also: both, cut, way

cut both ways

to have both advantages and disadvantages work both ways The Internet cuts both ways – it not only opens borders, it draws boundaries between the people who have it and those who do not.

See also: both, cut, way

cut both/two ways

to have two different effects at the same time, usually one good and one bad (never in continuous tenses) Censorship cuts both ways; it prevents people from being corrupted, but it often also prevents them from knowing what is really going on.

See also: both, cut, way

cut both ways

Have a mixed effect, have advantages and disadvantages. For example, Their solution will cut both ways; it'll take longer but is permanent. This metaphoric expression alludes to a double-edged sword. [c. 1600]

See also: both, cut, way

cut both ways

To have both favorable and unfavorable results or implications.

See also: both, cut, way