Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cut-water n.

the nose.

1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 34: He has had his cut-water staved in – in other words his nose has been broken in till it is rather flat.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 46: Lize [...] lowers her Bowery cut-water so as to present the smallest possible space to the atmosphere.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 5 Sept. 3/1: Tom at length caught him on the cutwater, drawing a fresh supply from the best bin [i.e. of ‘claret’].
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 268: If you’d a pair o’ skylights athort your cutwater, you’d be set for a professor of phrenology.