Fig.: to achieve the required standard; to meet the requirements to succeed

He's forty and many people thought he was too old for professional baseball, but with his 10th homerun he showed that he can still cut the mustard

Ha 40 anni e molti pensavano che fosse troppo vecchio per giocare a baseball da professionista, ma con il suo decimo homerun ha dimostrato a tutti che che può farcela ancora benissimo

The coach to the players: “You'll need to give it your all, as this will be a crucial match, and athletes who can't cut the mustard won't make the team”

L'allenatore ai giocatori: “Dovrete impegnarvi al massimo, perché questa sarà una partita fondamentale e gli atleti che non sono all'altezza, non entrano in squadra”

From the Governor's speech: “We must match and train our work force for the jobs of today and tomorrow. A generic job training program just doesn't cut it any more”

Dal discorso del Governatore: “Dobbiamo adeguare e formare la nostra forza lavoro ai lavori di oggi e di domani. Un generico programma di formazione professionale ormai non basta più”

Jason is an honest and hard-working young man, but when his work is compared to the rest of his co-workers, he simply doesn't cut it

Jason è un ragazzo onesto e lavora sodo, ma la qualità del suo lavoro non è all'altezza di quella dei suoi colleghi

This expression goes back to the early 1900s and its origin has different explanations and theories. Some think that it refers to a cowboy expression, "the proper mustard", meaning "the genuine thing" (owing to its spicing up food), and a resulting use of "mustard" to denote the best of anything. Others think it's a corruption of the military term “to pass mustard”, which means to pass inspection. Yet others believe that it refers to the preparation of mustard itself, where you have to add vinegar to mustard seed to “cut” (reduce) its bitter taste