Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to dismiss or send away a person.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: I’ll Cut your Painter for ye, I’ll prevent ye doing me any Mischief.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Painter, I’ll cut your painter for you, I’ll send you off.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. to slip away clandestinely.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 14/1: Teemer has cut the painter from Morris and Soulson, the backers whom he alleges played him false over the recent race with Gaudaur, and will in future manage himself.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 4 Mar. 1/3: Fiddle-de-dee / That might have caused, were’t even written fainter, / Australian provinces to ‘cut the painter’.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 85: There were women who had cut the painter because they were ‘loose’.

3. to die.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 283/2: naut. from ca. 1850.

4. to bring something to an irrevocable conclusion.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Apr. 20/3: Public enthusiasm is a queer thing. A few years ago in Queensland M’Ilwraith propounded his National policy and talked big things about cutting the painter, and Bananaland roared itself hoarse with applause. Now a man who talks about cutting the painter gets stoned in the streets.
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 141: There was no doubt that he had cut the painter once and for all.