cut it v.3
1. (orig. US) to manage, to deal with (difficult) situations; to suffice, to satisfy.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Tales of the Ex-Tanks 62: Hello, there, pal [...] how’re you cuttin’ it this morning? | |
| Little Caesar (1932) 137: ‘Can’t cut it,’ said the turnkey. | |
| ‘A Musician’s Word List’ in AS XII:1 46: cut it, v. To be able to play expertly. ‘This arrangement is so tough my band can’t cut it.’. | |
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 637: He tried to teach me, but I couldn’t cut it. | |
| Hot to Trot 198: He couldn’t cut it. He didn’t have the drive. | |
| Carlito’s Way 14: Somebody was always jumpin’ off the roof [...] some Rican who couldn’t cut it on the street. | |
| Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 148: I wasn’t sure I would cut it. | |
| Glitter Dome (1982) 197: In those days he could cut it. | |
| Skin Tight 93: Well, five thousand dollars isn’t going to cut it anymore. | |
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 277: Prowling for women didn’t cut it. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Filth 107: If we couldn’t cut it on the force that would be us in deep shit. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Guardian 8 Nov. 18: She can’t cut it for me. | |
| Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 45: One of rap’s original masters can still cut it when he feels the need. | |
| Indep. on Sun. Rev. 19 Mar. 21: Rotten’s old refrain of, ‘I’m the star, fuck off,’ would never cut it with Vicious. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | IOL News (Western Cape) 26 Sept. 🌐 Males [...] getting blindingly drunk and dribbling on about tits and footie wasn’t cutting it any more. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Rubdown [ebook] Masturbation just wasn’t cutting it any more. | |
| Night Gardener 223: That won’t cut it if I go up on charges. | |
| Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] A holiday? You think that’s going to cut it, Bob? | |
| Old Scores [ebook] He was parked in the middle of the one police jurisdiction where his fake ID wouldn’t cut it. | |
| Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘Sorry don’t cut it, pendejo’. | |
| Blacktop Wasteland 2: [N]o one was willing to put up more than $200. That wasn’t gonna cut it. |
2. to accept, to tolerate.
| ‘Dead Men Don’t Drink’ in I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 39: He ain’t gonna cut this nohow [...] He ain’t gonna cut this at all. |
3. to surpass.
| ‘Knee Deep in Blood Ulmer’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 18: Free Lancing is good – but Are you Glad cuts it (though it’s a close call). |
In phrases
to act in a threatening, domineering manner.
| ‘The Bould Yeoman’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 136: He met a bould yeoman, and bid him for to stand; / ‘If I do, I’m damn’d!’ said he, ‘although you cut it grand.’. |
see under spicy adj.
to have an uproarious good time.
| Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 4: […] if I was you. I’d be cuttin’ it up in Las Vegas [...] . |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
to show off, to make a vulgar display.
 | Guards 70: ‘My eyes, Jack! here 's a fresh swell! He cuts it fat, so help me Bob!’. | |
| Navy at Home II 251: Aye, aye [...] they cut it fat enough — an ensign lives like a prince, they tells me, and marries directly as he goes out. | |
| ‘London Recreations’ in Slater Dickens’ Journalism I (1994) 97: Gentlemen in alarming waistcoats, and steel watch-guards, promenading about, three abreast, with surprising dignity (or as the gentleman in the next box facetiously observes, ‘cutting it uncommon fat!’). | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘The Four And Ninepenny Hat’ Dublin Comic Songster 102: For eighteen bob you’ll now get four, / And you may cut it fat, sirs. | |
| ‘The Man About Town’ in Nobby Songster 23: But like more petty tradesmen, who cut it very fat, / My tin ran short, and you may guess, I soon was out of that. | |
| Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Feb. 3/3: The Jew Daniels ought to have stuck to his former business, that is barber and performer, rather than attempt to cut it fat as Sydney Merchant. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 Dec. 2/6: Patrick Mccarthy, apprenticed to the ‘soft-soaping’ and ‘cutting it fat’ profession. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 July 3/2: This is cutting it fat with a vengeance. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 21 June 3/2: Off he set with his miner’s hat / And on the road he cut it quite fat. | |
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 14 Apr. n.p.: [headline] The Shylocks Triumphant! — Curb Stone Brokers Cutting It Fat! | |
| Paul Pry (London) 15 Aug. n.p.: Bessy B— we[re] not to cut it quite so fat, as it is well-known her father is a bill-sticker. | |
| ‘Breitmann in Politics’ in Hans Breitmann About Town 38: He’s O. K. oopon de soobject; / Shoost pet your pile on dat; / On dis bartik’ler quesdion / He intends to coot it fat. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 15 June 2/2: I watched this yere racket to-day, but I wasn’t satisfied [...] The parson cut it fat, but the whole thing was tame business. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Oct. 5/2: I raked a cheque together, and thought that it would do, / So I went down to Sydney just to spend a week or two; / I thought I was no ‘flat,’ so resolved to ‘cut it fat,’ / Dressed myself from top to toe, put a pugg’ry round my hat. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 19 Feb. 3/8: Hulol, my noble Rumstrumdoo, / You cut it fat! What’s happened to you? | |
| Mirror of Life 14 Sept. 11/1: Arthur Valentine, on his arrival in New York, cut it very fat, and stopped at a swell hotel [...] where the prices are exceedingly thick. | |
| ‘Sl. Ditty’ Londinismen (2nd edn) vi: But, there, it don’t matter, / Since to cut it still fatter, / By hook and by crook / We’ve got up this book. | |
| Truth (Perth) 3 Dec. 6/8: While they lets these bludgin fellers / Slam around, and cut it fat. |