Cut Corners Meaning

(idiomatic) To do a less-than-thorough or incomplete job; to do something poorly or take shortcuts.

Example: To bypass a prescribed route so as to gain competitive advantage or to circumvent traffic signals or other rules of the road.
1882, Dan Seffert, quoted in “Half Hours with Dan Seffert”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Volume 39, page 275:
  […] but I believe the old man did not ride fair, as he cut corners and joined in with them again […]
  The guy who built the fence cut corners when sinking the posts, and the fence fell over in the last storm.