Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to do better than, to surpass.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: To Cut another out of business, to out-doe him far away, or excell, or circumvent.
1780		H. Cowley Belle’s Stratagem I i: Arrived! Yes, faith, and has cut us all out. His carriage, his liveries, his dress, himself, are the rage of the day.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 105: to cut out. [...] to supplant or excel in any way.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 28: cut out, to excel.
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 62: That beggar Blake [...] cut me clean out in five minutes.
1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 178: He little knows that getting cut out of a ‘gal’ by another ‘feller’ is a sorrow not confined to school-boys alone.
1888		‘’Arry on Competitive Examination’ Punch 1 Dec. 253/2: Whilst ’Arry’s cut out by a mug with a head like a dashed pot ’o beer.
1909		I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 101: If he is still young and strong, he will ‘cut out’ the lover of a woman of the street, either in a fight or while the other is in jail.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘With Music’ Sporting Times 8 Jan. 1/3: So that what with Bess grousin’, and us grousin’, too, / For ’e’d cut us all out with the ladies, we knew, / The result was a regular ’ullabaloo.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 68: Les Gaze is cuttin’ you out for your girl.

2. (US) to take over as someone’s preferred love-object or dance partner.

1775		A. Burnaby Travels 36: After some time, another lady gets up, and then the first lady must sit down, she being, as they term it, cut out; the second lady acts the same part which the first did, till somebody cuts her out.
1795		R. Cumberland Wheel of Fortune IV ii: Poor man! what between cutting up and cutting out, how you will be mangled!
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 640: The young lady said in the wery beginnin’ o’the keepin’ company that she couldn’t abide him. Nobody’s cut him out, and it ’ud ha’ been just the wery same for him if the young lady had never seen Mr Vinkle.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 21 May n.p.: Who goes to see the milliner in Pleasant Square now [...] You had better take care or you will get cut out.
1849		Thackeray Pendennis I 94: Sir Derby Oaks has been hanging about Miss Fotheringay [...] but Pen has come in and cut him out.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 223: Board her, woo her, assail her [...] no fellow here can cut you out if you only like to try.
1863		J.F. Brobst letter in Brobst Well Mary, Civil War Letters 19: I think you are safe from being cut out now, for there are no girls here.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple III 219: There would [...] be no difficulty in ‘cutting out’ such a dunder-headed beau.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Aug. 4/1: Then the lord of creation [...] wanted the man who'd ‘cut him out’ to stand up, not for a dance, but for a little mill, in the ball-room.
1887		Lantern (N.O.) 14 May 3: Speaking about Alice reminds me that Denver will be cuttin’ Frank out if he don’t mind.
1892		Albert Chevalier ‘I’ve Got ’Er ’At’ 🎵 When fust I see as Billy meant A-cuttin’ is old pal out, I fetches ’im sich a beauty on The tip of ’is ugly snout.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 7 Sept. 4/1: The greasy says if that young man down East cuts him out of his Bertha he will commit suicide.
1897		Ade Pink Marsh (1963) 193: Is he the Pullman porter that cut you and George Lippincott out?
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Lure of the Lucre’ Sporting Times 1 Aug. 1/4: What makes me fairly mad / Is the fact that I’ve been cut out by my own bald-nobbed grand-dad.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Friendly Call’ Rolling Stones (1913) 122: I want you to head her off. I want you to cut me out. I want you to come to the rescue.
1919		Tweed Dly (Murwillumbah, NSW) 17 May 7/4: But I’ve come a regimental; I have lobbed; I’m down and out. / I have landed good and clever; I have got the right about, / And I’ve lost all faith in women, and I’m out upon the grout, / Since that snoozer with a dial like a meat-axe cut me out.
1921		Broadway Brevities Dec 15: Did you know that later despatches corrected the rumor of Dolly B being ‘cut out’' by Jessie R?
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 115: Didn’t you deliberately cut me out with Radley?
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 112: He had got his girl back, found her again after all this time and had cut out old Bedbug.
1944		Duncan & Nickols Mentor Graham 100: They danced three- and four-handed reels and jigs, and cut out partners to make the dance last longer [DA].
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 91: Tried to cut me out with me sheila.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 57: In the May holidays Christopher Sumner had cut him out with a sheila.