Wiktionary
vb. (context idiomatic English) To judge or finish something close to its limit.
Usage examples of "cut it close".
I had already cut it close to my head, in anticipation of the effects of chemo.
They cut it close, but they should be in the harbor there before any big blow comes up.
Red lights and I ran them and cut it close and had to lock over to avoid a patrol car storming through on the green but the front wheels of the limousine went into a skid and the offside wing clouted the patrol car and sent it spinning full circle across the intersection with its headlights sweeping the buildings and flashing once across my eyes before I got the Zil straight and saw the construction site coming up through the haze of snow.
She'd cut it close and she'd have to work fast to get the photos before dark.
Navigation had cut it close, maybe too close--they were only two and a half days' travel above the plane of the elliptical, almost directly due north of Society 362.
You factor in the time it took him to undress her, carry her, pose her, mutilate her, he cut it close this time.