Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an amusing person, a joker; also ironically.

1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 71: Johnny Black, who was rapidly becoming normal, remarked that His Chickens was the village cut-up.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 40: ‘Whyn’t yuh dramatize yuhself an’ go intuh vodeville now?’ asked the cut-up of the trio.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 26: Ain’t he the cut-up, mister!
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 66: Ain’t they the nutty ones, these old cut-ups?
1920		E. Pound in Witemeyer Pound/Williams Correspondence (1996) 36: Some evidence that I have ever cursed anything but the faults of American verse. Produce it, you old village cut-up.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 137: I have to dress extravagantly and be the village cut-up to get any attention.
1939		Franklin & Cusack Pioneers on Parade 35: Look at that gink over there. Isn’t he a cut!
1941		N. Davis ‘Don’t Give Your Right Name’ in Goulart (1967) 17: Two college cut-ups beefed with Steamer.
1958		Mad mag. May–June 24: He was a longhair ... She was a cut-up.
1962		‘Ed Lacy’ Freeloaders 123: Stop being the college cut-up!
1971		C. Higgins Harold & Maude 47: ‘I think I should mention, Candy,’ said Mrs. Chasen, ‘that Harold does has his eccentric moments.’ ‘Oh, yes!’ said Candy, finally comprehending. ‘That’s all right. I’ve got a brother who’s a real cut-up too.’.
1975		H. Ellison Deadly Streets (1983) 14: I am garrulous. I am a cut-up.
1983		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: cut up – a person who acts silly, funny.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 77: This startling greeting was Texas’s fair warning that visitors were expected to throw convention to the wind – and pay in cash for the privilege of becoming a cut-up in her arena.
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 44: His uncle had been a cutup, a peaceful man who saw a lot of bad shit.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1907

News & Courier (Charleston, SC) 14 Apr. 18/1: he thought I was doing that Charlie-the-Kidder thing and trying to hang a cut-up tag on him.

3. (US) a success, a ‘smart’ individual.

1903		Inter Ocean (Chicago) 25 Jan. 34/2: I was feeling so much like a cut-up on account of the cute win.
1908		Dly Press (Newport News, VA) 29 Apr. 5/4: Mr Jobson preened himself and gazed around the street like a sure-enough clip who might develop into the very dickens of a cut-up if he had a mind to.

4. (US) a smartly dressed person, or smart thing.

1913

E.L. Warnock ‘Terms of Approbation And Eulogy’ in DN IV:i 23: cut-up. Anything stylish, stunning, or attractive [...] ‘You’ll be quite a cut-up with that hat.’.