cut a rug
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
THOUGH it has been more than 30 years since Jim Chilchutt last cut a rug at a high - school dance, he recaptures his lost youth every weekend, cruising the streets of Ventura behind the wheel of a 1948 Studebaker.
Never mind the name was shared with Sussex's biggest, baddest inland town; the jazz was hotter than the scorching asparagus soup, and many cut the rug until closing.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review.
Common questions
What does “cut a rug” mean?
To dance.
Is “cut a rug” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.