Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a share: of profits, of loot, of the proceeds of a robbery etc.

1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 I iii: Plague him, set him beneath the salt, and let him not touch a bit, till every one has had his cut.
1896		‘’Arry on Blues and Bluestockings’ Punch 21 Mar. 135/2: We must ’ave the pull in the pace, and we must ’ave first cut at the screw.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 53: CUT: slang share, commission, bribe.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/8: If the blokes wot ’e tells gives ’im a cut out of it [i.ed. a racing win], doesn’t that show them to be terrible good fellers.
1919		Aussie (France) XII Mar. 2/1: I’m hopping in for my cut with a couple of ‘Aussiosities’.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 112: We [...] decided you were entitled to an even cut.
1936		D. Stivens Tramp and Other Stories 86: There’s the bar and the travellers — and what the girls make — you bet she gets a cut out of that.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 78: Receiving a cut of the spoils for their services.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 263: ‘The nut comes off the top’ is a saying among the brethren. When stolen articles are cashed in all expenses must be taken care of before the cut is made.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 46: Cok got a cut from about 60 percent of all TV dollars spent.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 36: The outside security man was going to come along [...] for a sizeable cut.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 12: Your cut comes to three hundred seventy-six dollars.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 25: She palmed Joe a twenty, his cut of the Murphy.
2002		J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 84: I was counting my cut of the door. It didn’t take but an instant.
2005		L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 120: The house takes a 50 per cent cut.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 44: He would have to do more than promise her a cut of the take.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 25: Since he had been the new guy, his cut had only been five grand.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 52: ‘Your share, half my cut, could be as much as twenty million’.

2. a whore.

1796

in N.E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 186: You have hinted me with marrying But I think it will Be your turn first as you are so fond of Sly Cuts.

3. an act of ignoring a friend or acquaintance both deliberately and pointedly.

1798		Monthly Mag. Sept. 171/2: The cutter either walked smartly by, pretending not to see the cuttee; or, if he wished to make the cut more complete, looked him full in the face, without seeming to recollect him .
1806		G. Colman Yngr John Bull IV ii: I must confess it looks a little like a complete cut.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 108: The cut [...] is a fashionable word for getting rid, by rude or any means, of any person whose company is not agreeable.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 56: He trundled his cart with his head in the air, and one day gave the very beadle of the parish ‘the cut direct.’.
1840		Comic Almanack July 231: There was a regular cut between the next-door people and us.
1849		Thackeray Pendennis I: [caption] A cut direct.
1884		‘Experiences of a Cunt Philosopher’ in Randiana 91: This was the cut direct, before three others, too, but I grinned and bore it.
1911		Gem 11 Nov. 2: It was the cut direct!

4. the female genitals, the vagina.

1837		‘The Seduction of Jim Crow’ Icky-Wickey Songster 11: Such a great big cut / Between her legs she had.
1841		‘Female Tobacconist’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 42: Then he pull’d out his pipe, and said you gay slut, / Before I have your shag, I’ll see your broad cut.
1934		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana II 8: Rushing into the W.C., she heard a voice issue from the depths of the china bowl: ‘If anybody can have a cut like that and still be alive, then I guess I can live too!’.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

5. (US) an insult.

1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 439: ‘Humph!’ grunted Sir Moses, ‘that’s a cut at Mr. Findlater.’.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 143: One of the greatest ‘cuts’ I ever knew was once when a man was speaking of Chris. Newman and saying what a good sort he was, upon which the other said, ‘What do you mean by saying that? Why, d--- me, sir, he never called for a bottle of champagne in his life!’.
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 33: It was attended by the more ardent, even at the risk of receiving cuts and uncivil remarks from instructors.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 200: The cut brought colour to Gina’s face.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 239: That final cut about a ‘nigger-lover’ had bitten deep.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 10: cut – [...] a sharp remark to put someone down.

6. (US campus) the act of absenting oneself from a class.

1851		B.H. Hall College Words 90: Cut. An omission of a recitation [...] 147: Cuts. When a class for any reason become dissatisfied with one of the Faculty, they absent themselves from his recitation, as an expression of their feelings [DA].
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 31: cut, n. Self-imposed absence of student from recitation.
1915		R. Bolwell ‘College Sl. Words And Phrases’ in DN IV:iii 233: cut, n. Unexcused absence from class.
1946		F. Eikel Jr ‘An Aggie Vocab. of Sl.’ in AS XXI:1 32: cut, n. Class absence.
2003		T. Wolff Old School (con. 1962) 104: Purcell began to cut daily chapel. [...] We were allowed a fair number of cuts, but by the end of April he’d used his up.

7. (US campus) the failure of a class to meet.

1910		O. Johnson Varmint 100: Yesterday was a cut; of course you all took the hour to study conscientiously.
1915		R. Bolwell ‘College Sl. Words And Phrases’ in DN IV:iii 233: cut, n. [...] An hour when no class is held because the instructor ‘cut,’ [...] ‘Doc said he was going to give us a cut today’.

8. a go, an attempt; always as have a cut (at)

9. (Aus./US/UK) a swing with the fist; thus take a cut at v., to menace or hit with the fist.

1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 151: I’d have er cut at ole Spats hisself if ’e looked cock-eyed at me.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 67: ‘Strike me perp!’ he says, ‘if I don’t ’ave a cut at you for that!’.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 39: Maybe you’ll get another cut at him some time. In the ring.

10. uses pertaining to dilution or adulteration.

11. (orig. US sporting) a pre-arranged point at which a group of competitors or recruits to a team are reduced by those who fail to achieve a given standard.

1970		J. Bouton Ball Four 79: Six cuts today. You walk into the clubhouse and you see a guy packing his bag and you both try not to look at each other.
1999		Guardian Rev. 11 Sept. 12: Zoe Ball, who is in almost every tabloid almost every day, figures nowhere. Outta here. Didn’t make the cut.

12. uses based on being ‘cut out’ from the surrounding area.

13. (US) a record; a single song or track.

1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 205: ‘Them that’s got shall get [...]’ sang the vocalist on one of the three records I had selected. ‘I’ll bet that’s your cut,’ said Luzon.
1983		S. King Christine 85: One of the cuts on the jukebox is Rosemary Clooney singing ‘When Irish Eyes Are Smiling’.
1988		G. Tate ‘A R Kane’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 110: The title cut on Lollita is music for a medieval spaghetti Western.
2024		D. Rucker Life’s Too Short 98: I’ve been listening to Nanci’s album Little Love Affairs constantly and especially to this song, the eighth or ninth cut.

14. a recently received haircut.

1987		Arizona Dly Star (Tucson, AZ) Youth Beat 26 Dec. 8/3: Cut: Hairdo.
2003		marian Diary 17 Apr. at Bantjes.com 🌐 Dante loves my new cut and colour. But Dante always does (except when I do it myself ... and that’s the only time I like my cut).

15. see cut-up n.¹