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Cut both ways

Idiomatic Phrase
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Cut both ways: to have simultaneously positive and negative consequences; the blade image captures how a single action or argument can wound equally in opposite directions.

Detailed Definition
Cut both ways means that an argument, action, quality, or situation has effects on more than one side, often helping and harming at once. In poetry, it is valuable for exploring ambiguity: love comforts and wounds, memory preserves and torments, beauty uplifts and deceives, freedom liberates and isolates. The idiom’s cutting image implies sharp consequence rather than neutral balance. It encourages students to notice double meanings, paradox, and irony, especially where a poem refuses a simple moral conclusion.
Example
Example in poetry:
A reflective poem might say memory cuts both ways, comforting and wounding at once; In a satire on fame, praise cuts both ways by raising and trapping the poet; The phrase suits poems about double effects and mixed blessings; A poet could use it when one action harms and helps simultaneously.
Additional Notes
Cut both ways means an argument, action, or quality has effects in two directions, often both helpful and harmful. In poetry it can support ambiguity, irony, and moral complexity. The blade image is implicit: what cuts an opponent may also wound the speaker. It is useful in poems about beauty, fame, memory, truth, power, or love, where blessings and dangers are intertwined.
Also Known As
have dual effects
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