Definition of "cutoff"

cutoff

/kəˈtɒf/

noun
plural cutoffs
1. The point at which something terminates or to which it is limited.
  1. (medicine) A cutoff point (cutoff value, threshold value, cutpoint): the amount set by an operational definition as the transition point between states in a discretization or dichotomization.
2. A road, path or channel that provides a shorter or quicker path; a shortcut.
3. A device that stops the flow of a current.
4. A device for saving steam by regulating its admission to the cylinder (see quotation at cut-off).
5. A cessation in a flow or activity.
  Quotations
  If the treatment is approved, a script is written. If the script is approved, it goes into production. But this is usually a long and painful process. A cutoff can take place (and often does) at any step along the way.
  1985, Alfred Brenner, The TV Scriptwriter's Handbook, page 144
6. (poker) The player who acts directly before the player on the button pre-flop.
7. (fashion, chiefly in the plural) Shorts made by cutting off the legs from trousers.
  Quotations
  […] I spotted through the window a young woman casually crossing Astor Place wearing a pair of cutoffs, some sandals and — it is fully legal to do this — naked above the waist.
  2021 July 22, Guy Trebay, “Suddenly It’s Bare Season”, in The New York Times‎
8. (journalism) A horizontal line separating sections of the page.
  Quotations
  Light-face type, cutoffs, borders and rules are the universal plan. No black body matter and almost no black headlines appear.
  1919, The Washington Newspaper
adjective
not comparable
1. Constituting a limit or ending.
2. (psychology, medicine) Designating a score or value demarcating the presence (or absence) of a disease, condition, or similar.