noun that which cuts off or shortens, as a nearer passage or road.
2. cut-off ·noun any device for stopping or changing a current, as of grain or water in a spout.
3. cut-off ·noun the valve gearing or mechanism by which steam is cut off from entering the cylinder of a steam engine after a definite point in a stroke, so as to allow the remainder of the stroke to be made by the expansive force of the steam already let in. ·see expansion gear, under expansion.