Cut

Cut, kut, v.t. to make an incision in: to cleave or pass through: to divide: to carve, hew, or fashion by cutting: to wound or hurt: to affect deeply: to shorten: to break off acquaintance with, to pass intentionally without saluting: to renounce, give up: to castrate: to perform or execute, as 'to cut a caper.'—v.i. to make an incision: to pass, go quickly: (slang) to run away, to be off: to twiddle the feet rapidly in dancing:—pr.p. cut′ting; pa.t. and pa.p. cut.—n. a cleaving or dividing: a stroke or blow: an act of unkindness: the card obtained by cutting or dividing the pack: an incision or wound: a piece cut off: an engraved block, or the picture from it: manner of cutting, or, fashion: (pl.) a lot.—n. Cut′away′, a coat with the skirt cut away in a curve in front—also adj.—ns. Cut′-off, that which cuts off or shortens, a straighter road, a shorter channel cut by a river across a bend: a contrivance for saving steam by regulating its admission to the cylinder; Cut′purse (Shak.), one who stole by [Image: Cutter.] cutting off and carrying away purses (the purses being worn at the girdle): a pickpocket; Cut′ter, the person or thing that cuts: in a tailor's shop, the one who measures and cuts out the cloth: a small vessel with one mast, a mainsail, a forestaysail, and a jib set to bowsprit-end, any sloop of narrow beam and deep draught; Cut′-throat, an assassin: ruffian; Cut′ting, a dividing or lopping off: an incision: a piece cut off: a paragraph from a newspaper: a piece of road or railway excavated: a twig; Cut′-wa′ter, the fore-part of a ship's prow.—Cut a dash, or figure, to make a conspicuous appearance; Cut-and-come-again, abundant supply, from the notion of cutting a slice, and returning at will for another; Cut-and-cover, a method of forming a tunnel by cutting out, arching it over, and then covering in; Cut-and-dry, or Cut-and-dried, ready made, without the merit of freshness—from the state of herbs in the shop instead of the field; Cut and run, to be off quickly; Cut down, to take down the body of one hanged by cutting the rope: to reduce, curtail; Cut in, to strike into, as to a conversation, a game at whist; Cut it too fat, to overdo a thing; Cut off, to destroy, put to an untimely death: intercept: stop; Cut off with a shilling, to disinherit, bequeathing only a shilling; Cut one's stick, to take one's departure; Cut out, to shape: contrive: debar: supplant: to take a ship out of a harbour, &c., by getting between her and the shore; Cut short, to abridge: check; Cut the coat according to the cloth, to adapt one's self to circumstances; Cut the teeth, to have the teeth grow through the gums—of an infant; Cut the throat of (fig.), to destroy utterly; Cut up, to carve: eradicate: criticise severely: turn out (well or ill) when divided into parts; Cut up rough, to become quarrelsome.—A cut above (coll.), a degree or stage above; Short cut, or Near cut, a short way. [Prob. W. cwtau, shorten.]