From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcut something ↔ away phrasal verbREMOVEto remove unwanted or unnecessary parts from something by cutting it Cut away all the dead wood. → cut→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
cut away• After three years, some trees around it were cut and hauled away.• He found that even if he could get a word in edgewise it was encircled and cut off right away.• Some had their hair cut for running away.• Her face was dirty and her gown stained, and like Jehana she had cut the skirt away at thigh level.• This cuts directly away from the usual philosophical wrangling about this all-important subject. 