cut to the chase
Formscuts to the chase, cutting to the chase, cut to the chase
- 1To leave out unnecessary detail and get straight to the important point.
Like a movie that skips the slow buildup and jumps straight to the action.
After ten minutes of small talk, the manager finally cut to the chase and announced the layoffs.
Cut to the chase: do we have the budget for this project or not?
Note
A film editor's instruction turned into everyday advice: skip the slow footage and cut straight to the exciting part. The impulse is older than cinema. Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale (c.1400) already has "shortly forth this tale for to chace," a way of cutting a long story short. It often comes as a request or proposal, Could you… or Let's just…, and cut stays unchanged in the past: she cut to the chase.
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Origin
This comes from cinema, where to "cut" (edit a film) meant getting straight to the exciting part. A similar idea also appears earlier in Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale" (c.1400), "And shortly forth this tale for to chace," meaning to cut a long story short.