cut off a corner

cut off a corner (third-person singular simple present cuts off a corner, present participle cutting off a corner, simple past and past participle cut off a corner)

1. To take a shortcut.
   • 1833, Sporting Magazine, volume 6, page 400:

     Pioneer seemed now to have the game in his own hands; but the Captain, by taking two desperate leaps, cut off a corner, by which he regained the ground he had lost by the fall, and was up with the grey the remainder of the chase.