on the cutting room floor

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Rejected or discarded, often due to being unnecessary or unwanted.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Bị từ chối hoặc loại bỏ, thường vì không cần thiết hoặc không mong muốn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: parts of a film removed during editing
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The actor's favorite scene ended up on the cutting room floor.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “on the cutting room floor” mean?

Rejected or discarded, often due to being unnecessary or unwanted. Literally: parts of a film removed during editing

Is “on the cutting room floor” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.