cut swathes
Clear wide paths
To cut swathes (or cut a swathe) is to clear a wide path, originally through crops with a scythe.
The phrase now usually appears figuratively: a disease cutting swathes through a population, a politician cutting a swathe through the opposition.
To cut a wide swathe is to make a dramatic impression or have broad impact: The new CEO cut a wide swathe through company policy.
- mowShear vegetation short
- mow downKill many swiftly
- demolishDestroy completely
- scytheManual crop-cutting implement
- impactForceful contact or consequence
clear a path · wide berth · advance · transform · shear · obliterate · plow · annihilate · harvest · traverse · revolutionize · reap · carve · raze · surge · sweep · devastate · reshape
cut swathesfine-tune
Adjust for optimal performance
cherry-pick · pick off · chip away · nitpick · tweak
cut swathespass unnoticed
Fail to attract attention
skirt around · leave no trace · tread lightly · fly under the radar
cut, cuts, cutting, cutter, cutters, undercut, shortcut, swathe, swathes