cut to the quick

cut to the quick (third-person singular simple present cuts to the quick, present participle cutting to the quick, simple past and past participle cut to the quick)

1. (transitive, figuratively) To hurt a person deeply, especially emotionally.
   • 1899 March, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MI, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, , →OCLC, part II:

     I was cut to the quick at the idea of having lost the inestimable privilege of listening to the gifted Kurtz.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XI:

     But you must remember that we were boys together, and a fellow naturally confides in a chap he was boys together with. Anyway, be that as it may, he poured out his soul to me, and he hadn't been pouring long before I was able to see that he was cut to the quick. His blood pressure was high, his eye rolled in what they call a fine frenzy, and he was death-where-is-thy-sting-ing like nobody's business.

2. (figuratively) To incisively discuss the underlying sensitive or unpleasant root of a given topic.
   • 2005, Cristina Malcolmson, “Review of Fantasies of Female Evil: The Dynamics of Gender and Power in Shakespearean Tragedy by Cristina Alfar”, in Shakespeare Quarterly, volume 56, number 1, page 112:

     Alfar's analysis cuts to the quick of the socioeconomic structures that underlie marriage, primogeniture, monarchy, and imperialism.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cut,‎ quick.

• cut to the chase
• words cut deep