How to Use cut-and-dried in a Sentence

cut-and-dried

adjective
  • The split in the castle is now cut-and-dried.
    — Tom Smyth, Vulture, 27 Feb. 2026
  • There is only so much that’s cut-and-dried.
    — Jayson Stark, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2025
  • The decisions are even more cut-and-dried when a dancer brings in her coach.
    — Cathy Alter, Washington Post, 16 Aug. 2023
  • But, even within that process, things aren't always cut-and-dried.
    — Pandora Dewan, Newsweek, 30 Oct. 2024
  • Using a cut-and-dry approach may single them out and shut them down.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes, 9 Feb. 2024
  • Part of the reason is that neither the bugs nor their fixes are cut-and-dry.
    — Huo Jingnan, NPR, 11 Apr. 2026
  • For another, the issues were more cut-and-dried four decades ago.
    — Jackie Valley, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 May 2024
  • But the rules – and their enforcement – aren’t always cut-and-dried.
    — Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN, 3 Sep. 2024
  • What seems like a cut-and-dried case is revealed to have layers upon layers.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 9 Oct. 2024
  • But many physicists are not convinced by this cut-and-dried distinction.
    — Dipangkar Dutta, The Conversation, 3 Oct. 2025
  • Others say it's not cut-and-dry, or that there are other factors to consider.
    — Michael Tarm, ajc, 24 Mar. 2023
  • Simply following a plant list is not a cut-and-dried solution.
    — Caron Golden, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Mar. 2026
  • Clearly, there’s more to this story than a cut-and-dry acquisition.
    — Allure Editors, Allure, 14 Mar. 2025
  • The numbers on the health benefits of sun exposure remain less cut-and-dried.
    — Kara McGrath, Allure, 28 June 2024
  • But transgender rights advocates are warning the issue is not quite as cut-and-dry.
    — Marissa Meador, IndyStar, 27 Jan. 2026
  • The facts of the matter were fairly cut-and-dried, the only issue being how the court would respond to them.
    — Matt Farwell, Harper's Magazine, 13 Dec. 2023
  • But, true to form as a facts-not-feelings guy, Burgos argues that what’s good for you isn’t always so cut-and-dried.
    — Matthew Sedacca, Curbed, 23 Mar. 2026
  • But the reality of the app’s influence on discussions around the war isn’t cut-and-dried.
    — David Ingram, NBC News, 7 Nov. 2023
  • The more expensive tests are often a cut-and-dry digital display to leave no room for confusion.
    — Rachael Schultz, Health, 24 Feb. 2023
  • None of these things are true in the cut-and-dry sense, but the message has clearly instilled some fear of gel formulas on the internet.
    — Marci Robin, Allure, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Why the three companies are being held liable A key aspect of the settlement was cut-and-dry.
    — Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 9 June 2026
  • Why the three companies are being held liable A key aspect of the settlement was cut-and-dry.
    — Emma Tucker, CNN Money, 8 June 2026
  • The problem, however, is that relative to the amount of airtime this arc is taking up, the answers seem to be very cut-and-dry.
    — Shamira Ibrahim, Vulture, 20 Jan. 2025
  • The dome atop Ford Field removes weather as a variable and makes this pick more cut-and-dried than the other three this weekend.
    — Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 16 Jan. 2025
  • What’s noteworthy about that cut-and-dried response is how utterly Ferrari believes it.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 31 Aug. 2023
  • But not all conflicts are so cut-and-dried; some can go on for decades, with multiple wars waged as underlying problems remain unresolved.
    — John Spencer, Foreign Affairs, 18 Nov. 2024
  • Consumers are turning away from the cut-and-dry marketing strategies of the past in search of authentic, eye-catching campaigns that have meaning.
    — Hilary Tetenbaum, USA TODAY, 25 June 2024
  • To say this momentarily threw a wrench into the idea that this year’s Oscars would be a cut-and-dried affair is understating things.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 Mar. 2023
  • Any actions by an AI system outside those parameters would be a cut-and-dried violation.
    — Lauren Kahn, Foreign Affairs, 6 June 2023
  • While most back-to-work scenarios are more cut-and-dried — the studio film will take precedence over the passion-project indie — other situations are more nebulous.
    — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cut-and-dried.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: