Definition of "cut"

(transitive) To incise, to cut into the surface of something.

1. To perform an incision on, for example with a knife.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • You must cut this flesh from off his breast.

     c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i]

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

   Quotations

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

     1725, Homer, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot

   • First, marinate the tofu. In a bowl, whisk the kecap manis, chilli sauce, and sesame oil together. Cut the tofu into strips about 1cm thick, mix gently (so it doesn't break) with the marinade and leave in the fridge for half an hour.

     2012 May 8, Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook‎, Random House, page 79

3. To form or shape by cutting.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

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

     c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]

   • loopholes cut through thickest shade

     1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

4. (slang) To wound with a knife.  quotations

   Quotations

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

     1990, Stephen Dobyns, The house on Alexandrine

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

6. To deliver a stroke with a whip or like instrument to.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • “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.”

     1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company

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

   Quotations

   • she feared she should laugh to hear an European preach in Tamul , but on the contrary , was cut to the heart by what she heard

     1829, Elijah Hoole, Personal Narrative of a Mission to the South of India, from 1820 to 1828

8. To castrate or geld.  examples

9. To interfere, as a horse; to strike one foot against the opposite foot or ankle in using the legs.  examples

(intransitive) To admit of incision or severance; to yield to a cutting instrument.  quotations  examples

(transitive, social) To separate, remove, reject or reduce.

1. To separate or omit, in a situation where one was previously associated.  examples

2. To abridge or shorten a work; to remove a portion of a recording during editing.  examples

3. To reduce, especially intentionally.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

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

   • The principle of prioritising longer-distance trains by cutting services to wayside stations (often leading directly to their closure) is not new.

     2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3

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

   Quotations

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

     1833, Thomas Hamilton, Men and Manners in America

(transitive, social) To ignore as a social rebuff or snub.  examples

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

(transitive, film) To edit a film by selecting takes from original footage.  examples

(transitive, computing) To remove (text, a picture, etc.) and place in memory in order to paste at a later time.  examples

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

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

(transitive, cricket) To make the ball spin sideways by running one's fingers down the side of the ball while bowling it.  examples

(transitive, cricket) To deflect (a bowled ball) to the off, with a chopping movement of the bat.  examples

(intransitive) To change direction suddenly.  examples

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

(transitive, slang) To make, to negotiate, to conclude.

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

(transitive) To exhibit (a quality).  quotations  examples

(transitive) To stop, disengage, or cease.  examples

(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.  examples

(bodybuilding) To lose body mass, aiming to keep muscle but lose body fat.  examples

To perform (a dancing movement etc.).  quotations  examples

(participial adjective) Having been cut.  examples

Reduced.  examples

(of a gem) Carved into a shape; not raw.  examples

(cricket, of a shot) Played with a horizontal bat to hit the ball backward of point.  examples

(bodybuilding) Having muscular definition in which individual groups of muscle fibers stand out among larger muscles.  quotations  examples

(informal) Circumcised or having been the subject of female genital mutilation.  examples

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Upset, angry; emotionally hurt.  quotations

(slang, New Zealand, formerly UK) Intoxicated as a result of drugs or alcohol.  quotations

The act of cutting.  examples

The result of cutting.  examples

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

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

1. An artificial navigation channel as distinguished from a navigable river.  examples

A share or portion of profits.  quotations  examples

A decrease.  examples

(cricket) A batsman's shot played with a swinging motion of the bat, to hit the ball backward of point.  examples

(cricket) Sideways movement of the ball through the air caused by a fast bowler imparting spin to the ball.  examples

(sports) In lawn tennis, etc., a slanting stroke causing the ball to spin and bound irregularly; also, the spin thus given to the ball.  examples

(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.  examples

(especially theater, film) A passage omitted or to be omitted from a play, movie script, speech, etc.  examples

(film) A particular version or edit of a film.  examples

(card games) The act or right of dividing a deck of playing cards.  examples

(card games) The card obtained by dividing the pack.  examples

The manner or style in which a garment or an article of clothing is fashioned.  quotations  examples

A slab or slice, especially of meat.  quotations  examples

(fencing) An attack made with a chopping motion of the blade, landing with its edge or point.  examples

A deliberate snub, typically a refusal to return a bow or other acknowledgement of acquaintance.  quotations  examples

An unkind act; a cruelty.  examples

(slang) An insult  quotations

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

(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.

A haircut.  examples

(graph theory) The partition of a graph’s vertices into two subgroups.  examples

(Internet) A dividing line in a Tumblr post, the content below which is hidden until the reader reveals it.  examples

(rail transport) A string of railway cars coupled together, shorter than a train.  quotations  examples

An engraved block or plate; the impression from such an engraving.  examples

(obsolete) A common workhorse; a gelding.  quotations

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

A skein of yarn.  quotations  examples

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

(fashion) A notch shaved into an eyebrow.  examples

(bodybuilding) A time period when one attempts to lose fat while retaining muscle mass.  examples

(slang) A hidden, secluded, or secure place.  quotations

(petrochemistry) The range of temperatures used to distill a particular mixture of hydrocarbons from crude oil.  examples

(film and television) An instruction to cease recording.  examples