cut

From Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten, ketten (“to cut”) (compare Scots kut, kit (“to cut”)), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *kytja, *kutta, from Proto-Germanic *kutjaną, *kuttaną (“to cut”), of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *kwetwą (“meat, flesh”) (compare Old Norse kvett (“meat”)). Akin to Middle Swedish kotta (“to cut or carve with a knife”) (compare dialectal Swedish kåta, kuta (“to cut or chip with a knife”), Swedish kuta, kytti (“a knife”)), Norwegian kutte (“to cut”), Icelandic kuta (“to cut with a knife”), Old Norse kuti (“small knife”), Norwegian kyttel, kytel, kjutul (“pointed slip of wood used to strip bark”).

Or less probably from Old French coutel (“knife”).

Displaced native Middle English snithen (from Old English snīþan; compare German schneiden), which still survives in some dialects as snithe.

• IPA^(key): /kʌt/

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• Rhymes: -ʌt

cut (third-person singular simple present cuts, present participle cutting, simple past and past participle cut)

1. (heading, transitive) To incise, to cut into the surface of something.
   1. To perform an incision on, for example with a knife.
      • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

        You must cut this flesh from off his breast.

   2. To divide with a knife, scissors, or another sharp instrument.

      Would you please cut the cake?

      • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

        Before the whistling winds the vessels fly, / With rapid swiftness cut the liquid way.

   3. To form or shape by cutting.

      I have three diamonds to cut today.

      • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

        Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, / Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?

      • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

        loopholes cut through thickest shade

   4. (slang) To wound with a knife.
      • 1990, Stephen Dobyns, The house on Alexandrine

        We don't want your money no more. We just going to cut you.

   5. (intransitive) To engage in self-harm by making cuts in one's own skin.

      The patient said she had been cutting since the age of thirteen.

   6. To deliver a stroke with a whip or like instrument to.
      • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:

        “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

   7. To wound or hurt deeply the sensibilities of; to pierce.

      Sarcasm cuts to the quick.

      • (Can we date this quote?) Joseph Addison

        The man was cut to the heart.

   8. To castrate or geld.

      to cut a horse

   9. To interfere, as a horse; to strike one foot against the opposite foot or ankle in using the legs.
2. (intransitive) To admit of incision or severance; to yield to a cutting instrument.
   • 1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, The Deacon's Masterpiece, in Chapter XI:

     The panels of white-wood that cuts like cheese, / But lasts like iron for things like these;

3. (transitive, heading, social) To separate, remove, reject or reduce.
   1. To separate from prior association; to remove a portion of a recording during editing.

      Travis was cut from the team.

   2. To abridge a piece of printed or written work.
   3. To reduce, especially intentionally.

      They're going to cut salaries by fifteen percent.

      • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19:

        In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. […]

   4. To absent oneself from (a class, an appointment, etc.).

      I cut fifth period to hang out with Angela.

      • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Hamilton

        An English tradesman is always solicitous to cut the shop whenever he can do so with impunity.

   5. To ignore as a social snub.

      After the incident at the dinner party, people started to cut him on the street.

4. (intransitive, film, audio, usually as imperative) To cease recording activities.

   After the actors read their lines, the director yelled, "Cut!"

5. (intransitive, film) To make an abrupt transition from one scene or image to another.

   The camera then cut to the woman on the front row who was clearly overcome and crying tears of joy.

6. (transitive, film) To edit a film by selecting takes from original footage.
7. (transitive, computing) To remove and place in memory for later use.

   Select the text, cut it, and then paste it in the other application.

8. (intransitive) To enter a queue in the wrong place.

   One student kept trying to cut in front of the line.

9. (intransitive) To intersect or cross in such a way as to divide in half or nearly so.

   This road cuts right through downtown.

   • 2011 January 18, Daniel Taylor, “Manchester City 4 Leicester City 2”, in Guardian Online:

     Leicester's response was swift although the referee, Mark Halsey, was generous in the extreme when he awarded the penalty from which Paul Gallagher made it 1-1. Neither Joleon Lescott nor Vieira appeared to make any contact with Dyer as he cut between them.

   • 2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:

     Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.

10. (transitive, cricket) To make the ball spin sideways by running one's fingers down the side of the ball while bowling it. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
11. (transitive, cricket) To deflect (a bowled ball) to the off, with a chopping movement of the bat.
12. (intransitive) To change direction suddenly.

    The football player cut to his left to evade a tackle.

13. (transitive, intransitive) To divide a pack of playing cards into two.

    If you cut then I'll deal.

14. (transitive, slang) To write.

    cut orders;  cut a check

15. (transitive, slang) To dilute or adulterate a recreational drug.

    The best malt whiskies are improved if they are cut with a dash of water.

    The bartender cuts his beer to save money and now it's all watery.

    Drug dealers sometimes cut cocaine with lidocaine.

16. (transitive) To exhibit (a quality).
    • 2011 January 25, Paul Fletcher, “Arsenal 3-0 Ipswich (agg. 3-1)”, in BBC:

      Arsenal were starting to work up a head of steam and Tractor Boys boss Paul Jewell cut an increasingly frustrated figure on the touchline.

17. (transitive) To stop or disengage.

    Cut the engines when the plane comes to a halt!

18. (sports) To drive (a ball) to one side, as by (in billiards or croquet) hitting it fine with another ball, or (in tennis) striking it with the racket inclined.
19. (bodybuilding) To lose body mass after bulking, aiming to keep the additional muscle but lose the fat.
20. To perform (a dancing movement etc.).

    to cut a caper

    • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

      'Choke, chicken, there's more a-hatching,' said Miss Mag, in a sort of aside, and cutting a flic-flac with a merry devilish laugh, and a wink to Puddock.

• See Thesaurus:cut

• chop, hack, slice, trim

• copy
• paste

cut (comparative more cut, superlative most cut)

1. (participial adjective) Having been cut.
2. Reduced.

   The pitcher threw a cut fastball that was slower than his usual pitch.

   Cut brandy is a liquor made of brandy and hard grain liquor.

3. Omitted from a literary or musical work.

   My favourite song had been cut from the show.

4. (of a gem) Carved into a shape; not raw.
5. (Can we clean up⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (cricket, of a shot) Played with a horizontal bat to hit the ball backward of point.
6. (bodybuilding) Having muscular definition in which individual groups of muscle fibers stand out among larger muscles.
   • 1988, Steve Holman, "Christian Conquers Columbus", Ironman 47 (6): 28-34.

     Or how 'bout Shane DiMora? Could he possibly get rip-roaring cut this time around?

   • 2010, Bill Geiger, "6-pack Abs in 9 Weeks", Reps! 17:106

     That's the premise of the overload principle, and it must be applied, even to ab training, if you're going to develop a cut, ripped midsection.

7. (informal) Circumcised or having been the subject of female genital mutilation
8. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Emotionally hurt.
9. Eliminated from consideration during a recruitment drive.
10. Removed from a team roster.
11. (New Zealand) Intoxicated as a result of drugs or alcohol.

• (intoxicated): See Thesaurus:drunk

cut (plural cuts)

A cut (graph theory sense) in a graph with five vertices, which partitioned it into two subgroups (one with white vertices and another with black vertices).

1. The act of cutting.

   He made a fine cut with his sword.

2. The result of cutting.

   a smooth or clear cut

3. An opening resulting from cutting; an incision or wound.

   Look at this cut on my finger!

4. A notch, passage, or channel made by cutting or digging; a furrow; a groove.

   a cut for a railroad

   • Knolles

     This great cut or ditch Secostris […] purposed to have made a great deal wider and deeper.

5. (specifically) An artificial navigation as distinguished from a navigable river
6. A share or portion.

   The lawyer took a cut of the profits.

7. (cricket) A batsman's shot played with a swinging motion of the bat, to hit the ball backward of point.
8. (cricket) Sideways movement of the ball through the air caused by a fast bowler imparting spin to the ball.
9. (sports) In lawn tennis, etc., a slanting stroke causing the ball to spin and bound irregularly; also, the spin thus given to the ball.
10. (golf) In a strokeplay competition, the early elimination of those players who have not then attained a preannounced score, so that the rest of the competition is less pressed for time and more entertaining for spectators.
11. (theater) A passage omitted or to be omitted from a play.

    The director asked the cast to note down the following cuts.

12. (film) A particular version or edit of a film.
13. The act or right of dividing a deck of playing cards.

    The player next to the dealer makes a cut by placing the bottom half on top.

14. The manner or style a garment etc. is fashioned in.

    I like the cut of that suit.

    • Shakespeare

      with eyes severe and beard of formal cut

15. A slab, especially of meat.

    That’s our finest cut of meat.

16. (fencing) An attack made with a chopping motion of the blade, landing with its edge or point.
17. A deliberate snub, typically a refusal to return a bow or other acknowledgement of acquaintance.
    • Washington Irving

      Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, snapped his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed.

18. A definable part, such as an individual song, of a recording, particularly of commercial records, audio tapes, CDs, etc.

    The drummer on the last cut of their CD is not identified.

19. (archaeology) A truncation, a context that represents a moment in time when other archaeological deposits were removed for the creation of some feature such as a ditch or pit.
20. A haircut.
21. (graph theory) The partition of a graph’s vertices into two subgroups.
22. A string of railway cars coupled together.
23. An engraved block or plate; the impression from such an engraving.

    a book illustrated with fine cuts

24. (obsolete) A common workhorse; a gelding.
    • Beaumont and Fletcher

      He'll buy me a cut, forth for to ride.

25. (slang, dated) The failure of a college officer or student to be present at any appointed exercise.
26. A skein of yarn.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

27. (slang) That which is used to dilute or adulterate a recreational drug.

    Don't buy his coke: it's full of cut.

28. (fashion) A notch shaved into an eyebrow.
29. (bodybuilding) A time period when one tries to lose fat while retaining muscle mass.

• TUC, UTC

cut m (genitive singular cuit, nominative plural cuit)

1. Cois Fharraige form of cat (“cat”)

• "cut" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

From Proto-North Sarawak *likud, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *likud.

cut

1. back (the rear of body)

• IPA^(key): /t͡sut/

cut

1. supine of cuś

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /kɨ̞t/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /kɪt/

Borrowed from Middle English [Term?], from Old Northern French cot, cote (“hut, cottage”).

cut m (plural cutiau)

1. hut, shed; cottage, hovel; pen, coop; cage

cut m (plural cutiaid)

1. Alternative form of cud (“kite”)

• Angharad Fychan and Ann Parry Owen, editors (2014), “cut”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies