cut corners

Example: “The builder cut corners, and now the roof leaks.”

Origin: On record from the late 1800s, describing the literal shortcut of cutting diagonally across a corner rather than following its full right angle — the fastest way between two points that isn't a straight line down an open road. Several specific settings compete for credit: one points to horse-drawn carriage driving, where rounding a corner tightly saved real distance and time; another to hunting, where the earliest citations for the phrase are said to concern the paths hounds actually took chasing prey rather than the paths available to them; a third links it to the older "cater-corner" (diagonally across an intersection), which softened over time into "catty-corner," then "kitty-corner," and possibly "cut corner" along the way. Whichever setting gets credit, the figurative sense — skipping steps to save time or money, usually at the expense of quality — follows the same underlying logic of taking the shorter, less proper route.