cutting back
Scaling down expenses
Cutting back means reducing or trimming something.
You cut back spending, drinking, or hours at work.
In gardening, cutting back means pruning plants to encourage new growth: I spent the afternoon cutting back the roses.
The phrase often implies moderation rather than elimination: I'm not quitting coffee, just cutting back.
- downsizingReducing workforce or scale
- shrinkingDecreasing in dimension
- trimmingCutting away excess
- cost cuttingReducing expenditures deliberately
- economizeReduce expenses deliberately
paring · rollback · pruning · hedge trimming · austerity · reducing · curbing · thinning · belt-tightening · retrenchment · abstaining · living lean · making do · tapering · curtail · slashing · streamlining · deadheading
- reducingshrinking, lessening, diminishing, decreasing, scaling down
- thinning outthinning, pruning, weeding, culling, trimming
- gardeninggardener, gardening, flowers, seeds, soil
- New Year's resolutionsI pledge, fresh start, clean slate, new chapter, starting over
- pruningprune, topiary, clip, hedge trimming, trim
- doing withoutfasting, rationing, skipping meals, going hungry, abstaining
cutting backincreasing
Becoming greater in amount
expanding · adding · growing · augmenting · building up
cutting backsplurging
Spending freely, excessively
investing · indulging · overspending · lavishing · squandering
cutting backexpanding
Growing in scope
growing · flourishing · developing · branching out · spreading