Trim away
Hi,
"The economic surplus can be trimmed away if you lower the price."
I know that I can use the word 'eliminate', but I recently came across 'trim away' and I was wondering if it could be used.
Thank you.
Top answer
Dear Ann225, Trim away is perfectly legitimate here and adds idiomaticity to this piece of economic discourse. This phrasal verb is so common that it has found its way into the Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary (among others). The literal definition goes like this (just to state the obvious): If you trim away or trim off parts of something, you cut them off, because they are not needed.
- Dear Ann225, Trim away is perfectly legitimate here and adds idiomaticity to this piece of economic discourse.
- This phrasal verb is so common that it has found its way into the Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary (among others).
- The literal definition goes like this (just to state the obvious): If you trim away or trim off parts of something, you cut them off, because they are not needed.
- ), and this example is precisely that of a metaphor.
- Respectfully, Andriy Lapin
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Dear Ann225,
Trim away is perfectly legitimate here and adds idiomaticity to this piece of economic discourse. This phrasal verb is so common that it has found its way into the Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary (among others). The literal definition goes like this (just to state the obvious):
If you trim away or trim off parts of somethin
0I don't understand what you are trying to say.
Who is 'you'? We usually use the term 'economic surplus' if we are talking about governments.
Can you try to say it another way?
0
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