English → Latin
“cut down” in Latin
interlūcōto thin; to clear foliage so as to let light throughtrucīdōto slaughter, massacre, cut to pieces, kill in a cruel way; to demolish, destroy, ruinobtruncōto kill, slaughter, cut down; to trim, prune
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
cut down
(α) (α) To fell, arbores collucare or interlucare (to cut down trees on different spots, to clear, i. e., of trees); arbores intervellere (to cut off the branches); silvam excidere (to clear the forest): to cut down the forests, silvas sternere dolabris (Curt. 8, 4, 11). (β) To kill, trucidare: trucidando occidere (to slaughter); obtruncare (to massacre): cut down every thing, omnia sternite ferro (Liv. 24, 38): a great number of the fugitives were cut down, magna caedes fugientium est facta: a great number were cut down on both sides, pugnatum ingenti caede utrimque: to cut anybody down (who has hanged himself), praecidere alicui laqueum (Sen., Controv., 5, 1, extr.). To CUT INTO; incidere: accidere (to cut anything so nearly through, that the least touch will cause it to fall; e.g., arborem, Caes., B.G., 6, 27): to cut into small pieces, minutim or minutatim concidere: to cut pieces of bread into soup, mollia panis incoquere (after Plin., 29, 4, 23): to cut bacon into small squares, spatulam porcinam tessellatim concidere (Apicius, 4, 3, p. 133, ed, . List.).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for cut down?
- The usual Latin words for “cut down” are interlūcō, trucīdō, obtruncō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.