cutthroat

• cut-throat, cut throat

From cut +‎ throat.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʌtθɹoʊt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

cutthroat (countable and uncountable, plural cutthroats)

1. A murderer who slits the throats of victims.
2. An unscrupulous, ruthless or unethical person.
3. (uncountable) A three-player pocket billiards game where the object is to be the last player with at least one ball still on the table.
4. (linguistics) Ellipsis of cutthroat compound (“an agentive-instrumental verb-noun compound word”).
   • 2015 May 22, Stan Carey, “The Kick-butt World of Cutthroat Compounds”, in Slate Lexicon Valley‎^[1]:

     Children go through a phase of compound acquisition in which they invent cutthroats spontaneously before dropping the habit again.

cutthroat (comparative more cutthroat, superlative most cutthroat)

1. Involving the cutting of throats.
2. Of or relating to a card game where everyone plays for him or herself rather than playing with a partner.

   He found that playing cutthroat Spades was much more difficult than playing with a partner.

3. Ruthlessly competitive, dog-eat-dog.

   Law is a cutthroat business, you always have to look out to see who is trying to outdo you.

   • 2010, Kate Stevens, Freak Nation, page 159:

     More specifically, Scrabblers are diehard, competitive, and occasionally cutthroat players who treat the game like it's chess or baseball...

   • 2023 December 1, Evelynn Kersting, “GAMES AND TIME”, in University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee‎^[2], page 9‎^[3], archived from the original on 6 June 2025:

     While these esports are often framed as battles of mental strategies and mechanical skills, how players juggle their hundreds, or thousands, of simultaneously ticking clocks and timers defines their ability to succeed in cutthroat competitions.

• cutthroat eel