Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

-s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
-ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
-ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

cut down

verb, adjective

Forms cuts down cutting down

verb (intransitive, literally) To cut downward.
verb (transitive, literally) To adulterate a drug. “We need to cut the cocaine down.”
verb (transitive) To bring down by cutting. “They want to cut down several trees to make room for the parking lot.”
verb (idiomatic, transitive) To insult, to belittle.
verb (idiomatic) To reduce the amount of something. “He wants to cut down on extra steps.”
verb (idiomatic, dated) To slay, often in great numbers. “I will cut you down where you stand.”
verb (slang, intransitive, transitive) To shoot a gun; to shoot (someone or many people), usually to kill them.
verb (slang, transitive, African-American Vernacular) To challenge (someone); to prove superiority to (someone).
adjective Having been cut down; reduced in strength or power.

Synonyms

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “cut down”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details