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Reader question: Please explain “cut out for life” in this sentence: He was an innocent teen who was never really cut out for life on the battlefield. My comments: “Cut out for life in the battlefield,” that is. In other words, the boy was unfit for life as a soldier. He was too innocent for the hardships and cruelties involved in army life. Perhaps he shouldn’t have joined the army in the first place. But I think you can say that just about any teen anywhere. I mean, who is suited really? Who is suited for life in the battlefield, where people kill other people they are ordered to? As Paul Simon used to sing in The Side of a Hill, soldiers don’t really know why they’re there for, except to kill – for causes even “the generals have long forgotten”. There are just causes for war, for sure, such as all wars fought against the Japanese outside their own small islands, but seriously, all wars are terrible and unsuited for teens – or men and women of any age. That’s my two cents worth on war and peace. Let’s re-focus on the question, “cut out for life in the battlefield”. “Cut out” is obviously a phrase from sewing. The tailor or designer, using knifes and scissors, cut out from a larger piece of cloth certain patterns. Then they sew the edges up to make a shirt or trousers, according to the original design. According to design, obviously. If the cloth is cut out for a shirt, the sewer can never stitches them up into a pair of trousers however nifty their fingers are. Of course. | 
