prime cut

A prime cut of beef tenderloin steak served at a restaurant in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɪm kʌt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌt

prime cut (plural prime cuts)

1. (cooking) A top-quality serving of meat.
   • 1884, George T. Lowth, The Immortal Schoolmaster, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 34:

     Does he follow his nature, and go into the prime cut like a man; or does he put it away from him and follow the ways of the old prophet out in the desert of Arabia, and content himself with a dinner upon air with a drink of water to wash it down?

   • 2009, Sayantani DasGupta, “The Doctor’s Wife”, in Mark D. Tyler-Lloyd, editor, The Real Life of an Internist (Kaplan Voices: Doctors), New York, N.Y.: Kaplan Publishing, →ISBN:

     My husband brings his work home. Had he been a butcher, it might have been a prime cut of steak; a mason, a block of limestone. […] But my husband is an oncologist, so he brings home the dead and dying.

   • 2013, Gail Oust, chapter 5, in Rosemary and Crime: A Spice Shop Mystery, New York, N.Y.: Minotaur Books; Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN:

     Not sure these old bones of mine are up to slaying any dragons, but if it's a prime cut of meat you want, I'm your guy.

2. (by extension) Something that represents the best quality in its class.
   • 2004, Sidney Offit, “No Time for Senior’s”, in Tim McLoughlin, editor, Brooklyn Noir, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Akashic Books, →ISBN:

     I got no idea who he thinks is listening to us, but I register that this is prime cut information.

   • 2011, John Lutz, chapter 39, in Fear the Night, New York, N.Y.: Pinnacle Books, →ISBN:

     He graduated magna cum laude from ASU in three years, then promptly earned his MBA from the Wharton School. Corporate recruiters saw him as prime cut.

   • 2013, John Haggerty, “The Meat Forest”, in John [Gregory] Betancourt et al., editors, The Haunts & Horrors Megapack, [Rockville, Md.]: Wildside Press, →ISBN, page 161:

     The new kid was covered in mud, the thin drizzle doing nothing to clean him off, but it was clear he was a prime cut.

   • 2015, Mark Ribowsky, Whiskey Bottles and Brand-New Cars: The Fast Life and Sudden Death of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press, →ISBN, page 189:

     […] with Rolling Stone's John Milward hailing the band's [Lynyrd Skynyrd's] "Southern blues-rock diced with the sharp blade of British hard rock" as "a prime cut of guitar rock" and Ronnie's "world-weary" vocals "barroom-tough on rockers, properly vulnerable on … 'Searching' and 'The Needle and the Spoon'."