1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. viii. There have been
instances of the weaker sex ... cutting down, from sheer nerve and
determination, the bearded sons of Nimrod themselves.
1884. Referee, 13 April, p. 1, col. 4. George’s performance in the
ten miles handicap at Stamford Bridge on Monday—51 min. 20 sec.—is
hardly likely to be disturbed for a long time to come, unless he
cuts himself.
6. (theatrical).—To strike out portions of a dramatic production, so as
to shorten for representation. Cf., subs., sense 3.
7. (University).—To avoid; to absent oneself from. Thus, to cut
lecture, to cut chapel, to cut hall, to cut gates are common phrases.
1794. Gentleman’s Mag., Dec., s.v.
1889. Whibley, In Cap and Gown, s.v.
Cut a Caper or Capers, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To play a trick or
prank; to behave boisterously or fantastically. [From cut, a verb of
action, + caper (q.v.) a freakish proceeding or prank.] Cf., Cut
didoes. Fr., battre un huit.
1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, Act i., Sc. 3. Sir And. Faith, I
can cut a caper.
c. 1626. Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 68. Pike,
Could I shake those chaines off I would cutt capers: poore Dick
Pike would dance though Death pip’d to him.
1712. Spectator, No. 324. Others are called the dancing-masters,
and teach their scholars to cut capers by running swords through
their legs.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxvii. He ... hied him home
to his bride, to communicate his happiness, cutting capers, and
talking to himself all the way.
1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, Act iv., Sc. 1. Har. Why,
isn’t it a shame to see so many stout, well-built young fellows,
masquerading, and cutting courants here at home, instead of making
the French cut capers to the tune of your cannon; or sweating the
Spaniards with an English fandango?
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xx., p. 208. Jonas only
laughed at this, and getting down from the coach-top with great
alacrity, cut a cumbersome kind of caper in the road.
Cut a Dash, Splash, or Shine, verbal phr. (general).—To make a show; to
attract attention through some idiosyncrasy of manner, appearance, or
conduct. In the United States to cut a splurge or cut a swathe. Fr.,
flamber; faire du flafla; and faire flouer.
1771. Foote, Maid of Bath, I. But the squire does not intend to cut
a dash till the spring.
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxii. Well, they cut as
many shines as Uncle Peleg. One frigate they guessed would
captivate, sink, or burn our whole navy.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxxi. Gin and water was the
ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one of its denizens
inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours generally did so with a
bottom of brandy.
1884. S. L. Clemens (‘M. Twain’), Huckleberry Finn, xxiii., 227. It
would a made a cow laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut.
1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 1 Sept., p. 5, col. 4. It is
while they are in the land of the living that I should like to see
the Australian Crœsuses spending their money. Why don’t they—to use
a very vulgar but very expressive locution—cut a splash with their
magnificent revenues?
Cut a Figure, verbal phr. (common).—To make an appearance, good or bad.
1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy. vol. II., ch. ii. You will cut no
contemptible figure in a metaphysic circle.
1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. x. When Moses has trimmed
them [the horses] a little, they will cut a very tolerable figure.
1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. i. He certainly cut a droll
figure.
Cut and Come Again, phr. (colloquial).—Plenty: i.e., if one cut does
not suffice plenty remains to come at again.
1738. Swift, Polite Conv., dial. ii. I vow, ’tis a noble sir-loyn.
Neverout. Ay; here’s cut and come again.
1821. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, tour III., ch. iv. Something of bold and
new design Dug from the never-failing mine, That’s work’d within
your fertile brain, Where all is cut and come again.
Subs. (venery).—The female pudendum.
Cut-Away, subs. (common).—A morning coat. [From comparison to a
frock-coat, the lappets in front being ‘cut away.’] For synonyms, see
Capella.
1866. London Miscellany, 5 Jan., p. 201. ‘London Revelations.’ He
wore a Newmarket cutaway, with huge flaps and pockets monopolising
the whole of the skirts, suggestive of being receptacles for
plunder.
1870. London Figaro, 8 June. It may be taken as an axiom that if a
cutaway has been made for a fashionable man six feet high and broad
in proportion, it will never sit nicely on the form of a wee little
weaver of five feet two.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Oct., p. 3, col. 1. Off flies the frock
coat and the flowing necktie; on goes the little red bow and the
seedy brown ‘cutaway.’
Cut or Cut up Didoes, Shindies, Shines, etc., verbal phr.
(colloquial).—To play pranks or tricks; the same as cut capers.
18(?). Pickings from the Picayune, p. 147. This ’ere Frenchman has
been cutting up didoes in my house now for several days; he aint
sober onst a week, and breaks all my cheers and tables Mr.
Recorder.
1851. New York Tribune, 10 April. Had the Free States been manly
enough, true enough, to enact the Wilmot Proviso as to all present
or future territories of the Union, we should have had just the
same didoes cut up by the chivalry that we have witnessed, and with
no more damage to the Union.
Cut Dirt (American), or Cut One’s Stick, Lucky, etc., verbal phr.
(common).—To make off; to escape. To cut dirt is clearly an allusion to
the throwing up of mud and dust by a horse’s hoofs in fast trotting.
Originally, to cut one’s stick refers to the cutting of a staff from a
hedge or tree on the occasion of a journey. Cut over and cut away,
though vulgarly colloquial in the nineteenth, were in literary use in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A curious and noteworthy
parallel is found in Zechariah xi. 10, where the ‘cutting of a stick’
is described as the symbol of breaking a friendly covenant. Cut one’s
stick is sometimes elaborated into amputate one’s mahogany (q.v.). Cut
one’s lucky is a simple reference to a ‘lucky’ escape. A Latin
equivalent of Cut one’s stick is to be found in Juvenal’s Collige
sarcinulas (‘collect the bags’). For synonyms, see Amputate. To cut
one’s lucky also signifies to die.
1829. Negro Song [quoted in S. J., and C., p. 287]. He jump up fo’
sartin—he cut dirt and run, While Sambo follow arter wid his ‘tum,
tum, tum.’
1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers (about 1827), p. 79 (ed. 1857).
Hold still, sir; wot’s the use o’ runnin’ arter a man as has made
his lucky, and got to t’other end of the Borough by this time.
1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. xl. ‘And now that the nag
has got his wind again,’ said Mr. Chuckster, rising in a graceful
manner, ‘I’m afraid I must cut my stick.’
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 136. He [James II.] is the only English
sovereign who may be said to have amputated his bludgeon, which, if
we were speaking of an ordinary man and not a monarch, we should
have rendered by the familiar phrase of cut his stick.
1841. Comic Almanack, p. 278. As sune as ve arived at the sumat had
a Werry hextensif vew off Prinse lewy a cuttin his unlukky, folowd
by his folowers at Hi pressure spede.
1843. W. M. Thackeray, Lyra Hibernica. ‘The Battle of Limerick.’
... the best use Tommy made Of his famous battle blade, Was to cut
his own stick from the Shannon shore.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 150. A
man got me to go for some in a orchard, and told me how to manage;
but I cut my lucky in a minute.
1853. Western Scenes. Now you cut dirt, and don’t let me see you
here again for a coon’s age, you hear?
1855. J. Richardson, Recollections of Last Half Century, vol. II.,
p. 172. In less than half an hour he swallowed the whole undiluted
contents of the bottle, and having done so cut his lucky, and
retired.
ante 1871. Border Adventures, p. 231. Now, I say, old hoss, if you
don’t hurry up and cut dirt like streak-lightnin’, this child goes
arter you, and you look out for a windin’ sheet, you hear?
1880. Punch’s Almanack, p. 3.
Cute, Cuterer, and Cutely, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Sharp; clever;
‘fly to wot’s wot.’ [A corruption of acute.] Fr., avoir le nez creux.
For synonyms, see Knowing. So also cuteness, the quality or character
of being cute.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Cute (a): sharp, witty,
ingenious, ready, etc.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Cute (a low word used instead
of (Acute): witty.
1762. Foote, Orators, Act i. I did speechify once at a vestry
concerning new lettering the church buckets, and came off cutely
enough.
1765. Foote, Commissary, III. I did not know but they might be
after, more cuterer now in catching their larning.
1768. Goldsmith, Good Natured Man, Act ii. Well, who could have
thought so innocent a face could cover so much ’cuteness!
1768. Goldsmith, Good Natured Man, Act iv. Truly, madam, I write
and indite but poorly. I never was ’cute at my learning.
1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxxv. We can leave them to their own
devices; they’re both pretty ’cute.
1884. C. Gibbon, By Mead and Stream, ch. xx. Dressed in the latest
City fashion—for there is a City fashion, designed apparently to
combine the elegance of the West end with a suggestion of
superhuman ‘cuteness.’
Cut Fine, verbal phr. (common).—To narrow down to a minimum.
Cut In, verbal phr. (common).—To join in suddenly and without ceremony;
to intrude, or chip in (q.v.). Also substantively.
1819. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xxi. He was afraid you would
cut in and carry off the girl.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxiv., p. 246. I advise you
to keep your own counsel, and to avoid tittle-tattle, and not to
cut in where you’re not wanted.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. vii. ‘Most injudicious,’ cut in the
Major.
1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. vi. Keeping all her
after-supper waltzes for him religiously, though half the men in
town were trying to cut in.
1883. Referee, 17 June, p. 7, col. 4. I am anxious to have a cut in
and get a big advertisement for nothing.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. v. ‘In short,’ cut in my
uncle unceremoniously, ‘you have seen enough of Jack’s life to know
something about it?’
Cut Into, verbal phr. (Winchester College).—Originally to hit one with
a ‘ground ash.’ The office was exercised by Bible-clerks upon a ‘man’
kicking up a row when ‘up to books.’ Now generally used in the sense of
to correct in a less formal manner than tunding (q.v.).
Cut It, verbal phr. (common).—To move off quickly; to run away, or cut
dirt (q.v.). For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.
1885. Indoor Paupers, p. 36. Once a week we cut it From the
workhouse gate.
Intj. phr. (common).—‘Cease!’ ‘Stow it!’ ‘Stash it!’—A forcible
injunction to desist and be off. Also cut that! or simply cut!
1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, II., 240. Then first he seemed to awake
to his danger, and uttered a stentorian cry of terror, that rang
through the night, and made two [unprofessional] of his three
captors tremble. ‘Cut that,’ said Green [professional] sternly, ‘or
you’ll get into trouble.’ Mr. Hardie lowered his voice directly.
Cut it Fat, verbal phr. (general).—To show off; to make a display; to
‘come it strong’; ‘put on side,’ or cut a dash (q.v.).
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 54. Gentlemen, in alarming
waistcoats, and steel watch-guards, promenading about, three
abreast, with surprising dignity (or as the gentleman in the next
box facetiously observes, ‘cutting it uncommon fat!’)
1841. Comic Almanack, ‘Christmas Fair.’ A goose, even tailors have,
who cut it fat, And use the goose itself to get a flat.
1887. Baumann, Londonismen. ‘A slang ditty,’ p. v. But, there, it
don’t matter, Since to cut it still fatter, By ’ook and by crook
Ve’ve got up this book.
Cut Mutton, verbal phr. (old).—To partake of one’s hospitality. Cf.,
‘to break bread’ with one.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxxii. Bungay ... hoped to have the
pleasure of seeing both gents to cut mutton with him before long.
Cut Off One’s Head, verbal phr. (American political).—Used when an
official’s term of office has come to an end through change of
Government, or supercession in other ways. Also to decapitate and to
behead.
1869. New York Herald, 5 Aug. ‘The axe,’ wrote a correspondent from
Washington, ‘is still doing its bloody work, and heads are flying
off in all directions. The clerks in the Treasury Department begin
to feel anxious, as the work of decapitation will soon make an end
of them also.’
1872. Daily Telegraph, 5 Jan. ‘Leader.’ At the commencement of any
fresh Presidency, hundreds of Democratic employés have their heads
cut off to make room for Republicans who, in their turn, will be
decapitated when the Democrats get the upper hand again.
Cut of One’s Jib, subs. phr. (nautical).—The general appearance. [From
the foremost sail of a ship, which is frequently indicative of a
vessel’s character. A strange sail is judged by the cut of its jib.]
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple [ed. 1846], vol. I., ch. ii., p. 9. I
axes you because I see you’re a sailor by the cut of your jib.
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. iv. For I seed by the cut
of the feller’s jib that he was a preacher.
1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge (ed. 18), p. 363. Oh, I
see—there is a smart hand, in the gay jacket there, who does not
seem to belong to your crew—a good seaman, evidently, by the cut of
his jib.
1881. Buchanan, God and the Man, ch. xvi. By the voice of you, by
the rigs of you, and by the cut of your precious jib.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. iii. My democratic
wide-awake and the republican cut of my jib, said he looking down
at his clothes.
Cut One’s Cart, verbal phr. (vagrants’)—See quot.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 339.
I’ve seen them doze and sleep against the door. They like to be
there before anyone cuts their cart (exposes their tricks).
Cut One’s Comb, verbal phr. (common).—To snub; to lower conceit.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Supererog., in wks. II., 283. Can ... loue
quench, or Zeale luke warme, or valour manicle, or, excellencie
mew-vpp, or perfection geld, or supererogation combe-cutt itselfe?
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch the Old One, IV., iv. To see ten
men ride after me in watchet liveries, with orange-tawny
caps,—’twill cut his comb, i’ faith.
ed. 1717. Ned Ward, wks. II., 302. If you prate one word more, I shall
slice a sliver off your coxcomb, and teach you a little more manners
before I’ve done with you.
1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. ii. I will take my own
time; and all the Counts in Cumberland shall not cut my comb.
Cut One’s Eyes, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To get suspicious.
Cut One’s Eye (or Wisdom) Teeth, verbal phr. (common).—To learn ‘what’s
what.’ [A play upon the word ‘eye,’ with an allusion to the canine
teeth.]
Cut One’s Own Grass, verbal phr. (prison).—To get one’s own living.
Cf., Paddle one’s own canoe.
Cut Out, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To debar; deprive of advantage;
supersede. Cf., Cut, verb, sense 5. [Originally a nautical term; from
cutting out a ship in an enemy’s port.]
1779. R. Cumberland, Wheel of Fortune, Act iv., Sc. 3. I suspect
your heart inclines to Captain Woodville; and now he is come to
England, I suppose I am likely to be cut out.
1856. C. Bronté, Professor, ch. iii. There’s Waddy—Sam Waddy—making
up to her; won’t I cut him out?
1863. Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lost and Saved, p. 182. One woman has often
cut another out, whose superiority, if dissected and analysed,
would be found to be composed of the carriage that whirled her up
to the door, the nimble footman who rapped at it, the soft carpet
on the handsome staircase, the drawing-room to which it led, and
the gilt stand full of geraniums, heliotropes, and roses in the
curtained window.
1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. xxv. Here, as elsewhere,
she pursued her favourite amusement, remorselessly. Fallowfield
called it ‘her cutting out expeditions.’ She used to watch till a
mother and daughter had, between them, secured a good matrimonial
prize, and then employ her fascinations on the captured one.
Cut Out of, verbal phr. (common).—To ‘do,’ or be done, out of.
Cuts, subs. (tailors’).—Scissors. ‘Small cuts’ = button-hole scissors.
Cut Saucy.—See Saucy.
Cut Short. (Generally cut it short!) phr. (common).—A common injunction
not to be prolix. For synonyms, see Stow it.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lvii., p. 478. ‘Come, then!’ he
gruffly cried to her, ‘You hear what she says. Cut it short, and
tell her.’
1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ch. xvi. Let us cut this short,
Pennicuick. There is nothing more of importance to be said, and
such talk is painful to both of us.
Cutter, subs. (old).—A robber; a bully. [From committing acts of
violence like those ascribed to the Mohocks; or, from cutting purses.
Cotgrave translates cutter (or swash-buckler) by balaffreux,
taillebras, fendeur de naseaux. Coles has, ‘A cutter (or robber),
gladiator, latro.’] This ancient cant word now survives in the phrase,
‘to swear like a cutter.’
c. 1589. Nashe, Month’s Mind, in wks., vol. I., p. 152. These like
lustie cutters ... aduentured to lay holde fast on our purses, and
like strong theeues in deed proffered to robbe vs of all our
monnie.
1633. Rowley, Match at Midn., O. Pl., vii., 353. He’s out of cash,
and thou know’st, by cutter’s law we are bound to relieve one
another.