Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to defraud, to deprive.

1795		R. Cumberland Wheel of Fortune IV ii: A gentleman, who trusts to servants in his absence, is sure to be cut up.
1895		Mirror of Life 26 Jan. 14/3: Chandler defeated Dooney Harris. Whether it was a ‘cutting up job’ or not we are unable to say [...] but rumour [...] hinted so.

2. to harm.

1842

‘Mother Levy Was A Widow’ Nobby Songster 38: Such crowds of folks now gather’d round, it quite cut up her trade.

3. to divide, esp. money, loot; thus cut-up n., a share.

1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 505: We found after we knocked off we had between sixty and seventy quid to cut up (share).
1883		G.R. Sims How the Poor Live 80: These [...] were mostly ‘ramps,’ or swindles, got up to obtain the gate-money, and generally interrupted by circumstances arranged beforehand by those who were going to ‘cut up’ the plunder.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 211: He was forty quid short when he met poor old ball at the American bar to cut it up.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Sept. 16/4: ‘Well, yer see, Mister, me ’ole woman giv’ me a sprat ter get me hair cut, en I cut up a trey in cigarettes; but (appealingly) yer can take a trey’s worth off, carn’t yer, please, Mister?’.
1915		Van Loan ‘On Account of a Lady’ Taking the Count 134: I’ve cut up my last dollar with Dugan many’s the time.
1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 191: I offered to get some gear on the understanding that the cost of this was paid back to me before any of us had a cut-up of the takings.
1940		J.G. Brandon Gang War 222: Here’s a copy of a letter which looks to be written in Schurtz’s hand, concerning a cut-up of some theatre profits.
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 114: I slapped the currency on the desk, looking at him. ‘You cut it up.’.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 51: The take was cut up among the henchmen who called themselves the union officers.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 101: The ladies loo where merchandise and loot [...] are habitually exchanged and cut up.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 6: This thing I got in mind [...] the two guys I get to do it’re gonna cut up about thirty, I figure.

4. to leave a fortune; esp. in phrs. cut up big, cut up large, to leave a great deal (see also phrs. below).

1824		T.E. Hook ‘Danvers’ Sayings and Doings 1st Ser. I 20: His property was immense [...] and few people ventured to guess, to use the delicate and commonly accepted term, what he would cut up for.
1831		Disraeli The Young Duke II 110: ‘You think him rich?’ ‘Oh! he will cut up very large!’ said the baron.
1860		O.W. Holmes Professor at the Breakfast Table 251: The gentleman with the diamond, the Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way, how the old boy was likely to cut up, meaning what money our friend was going to leave behind.
1861		Hills & Plains I 114: ‘He must have cut up devilish well’.
1872		Civilian 2 Mar. n.p.: Time wears on, and old Stubbs pays the debt of nature, and cuts up splendidly. His colossal fortune is the making of his needy sons-in-law [F&H].
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Sept. 25/1: Alf. Joseph, after all the talk about his enormous wealth, ‘cut up’ for no more than £72,000, including a considerable sum for personal belongings which would have gone cheap had Alf. been reduced to the necessity of selling off to meet his liabilities.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 283/2: from ca. 1780.

5. (US) in boxing, to manage [the division of the fighter into a number of shares].

1951

J. Lardner ‘This Was Pugilism’ in New Yorker 17 Mar. 60: [Sugar Ray] Robinson, at one time or another, has been managed—‘cut up,’ as the trade expression goes.

6. to achieve, to win.

1955

R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 235: We cut up almost $350,000, it turned out.

7. see cut up (old) touches under touch n.¹