adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪
However, the situation is not quite as clear-cut as it might seem.
▪
It is not, however, as clear-cut in this country as it is on the continent.
▪
The situation wasn't as clear-cut as he'd have liked.
▪
But now nothing on the political-economic front is as clear-cut as it used to be.
less
▪
But it is possible that both views were influenced by hindsight and that matters seemed less clear-cut at the time.
▪
Parent-child identification is less clear-cut among girls than it appears to be in boys.
▪
Furthermore, if firms pursue objectives other than profit maximisation then the picture becomes even less clear-cut .
▪
At other times, the options are less clear-cut .
▪
On the output side the similarity is less clear-cut .
▪
However, in our experience the matter is less clear-cut and what is right for some is not the solution for others.
▪
Internationally, the situation is less clear-cut .
▪
But progress in marriage and parenting for people with learning difficulties is much less clear-cut and visible.
more
▪
The lesson to chess players is more clear-cut: chess turns out to be a much richer world than they thought.
▪
The appearance of a quid pro quo in the Hammer pardon is much more clear-cut than it is in the Rich case.
▪
The new regent was given the opportunity to determine a much more clear-cut policy than that of the 1540s.
▪
Or at least much more clear-cut and defined.
▪
For Sir Vernon Harcourt the issue was even more clear-cut .
▪
Transcription has the unfortunate tendency to make things seem simpler and more clear-cut than they really are.
so
▪
In practice the distinction is not so clear-cut .
▪
Pound's case is by no means so clear-cut .
▪
Unfortunately, the situation is not so clear-cut .
▪
But by 1273, when both the original parties to the 1259 agreement were dead, the issues were by no means so clear-cut .
▪
Honey Anna Scott-\#so clear-cut , so far in the lead.
■ NOUN
distinction
▪
There is, however, no clear-cut distinction , rather a continuum exists between the specific procedures and general information gathering.
▪
There is no clear-cut distinction between the plausible and the fantastic.
▪
Structural linguists question the existence of a clear-cut distinction between what is grammatical and what is ungrammatical.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
a clear-cut case of sexual harassment
▪
the clear-cut outline of the mountains
▪
There's no clear-cut distinction between severe depression and mental illness.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Chief among them was the lack of a clear-cut purpose.
▪
His was a dark, autocratic face, with clear-cut features that held an austere masculine beauty.
▪
It is not, however, as clear-cut in this country as it is on the continent.
▪
It is only in the elite price category, $ 35 and above, that Champagne holds a clear-cut advantage.
▪
My own approach is not biographical, and assumes neither a clear-cut persona nor a narrative sequence.
▪
The individual that produces the most clear-cut signal is most likely to have the most offspring.
▪
There no longer is a clear-cut definition of liberal and conservative.
▪
There were few outright failures, and many clear-cut successes.