cutting, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cutting n.

1. a stabbing, a knifing.

1860		Olmstead Back Country 56: Cutting is knifing — it may be stabbing, in southern parlance [HDAS].
1876		State Jrnl (Jefferson City, MO) 17 Nov. 7/5: A Serious Cutting Scrape [...] McCouley [...] drawing a long pocket knife, made a plunge at Ryron Moulting.
1937		C. Himes ‘The Night’s for Crying’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 134: You’d bring your nigger cuttings down on Euclid Avenue, would you, you black —.
1958		C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 25: That’s a bistro a couple of blocks up the street [...] They had a cutting there a short time earlier.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 35: No riots, no murders, only a few cars stolen [...] and a few domestic cuttings.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 123: His limbs and torso scarred from a half-dozen shootings and cuttings.

2. (drugs) the adulteration of drugs to increase the quantity prior to retail sale.

1960

C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 25: This is pure stuff [...] it comes out to something like eighty ounces after cutting.

cutting gloak (n.) [gloak n.]

one who is known for using a knife to settle quarrels.

1812

cutting up (n.) [the frequent use of blades to assist the suicide]

(US prison) committing suicide.

2000

cutting Dick (n.) [SE as predates sense 1 above]

a ruffian, a braggart.

1615		Work for Cutlers in C. Hindley Old Book Collector’s Misc. 7: Did you never hear of Cutting Dick.
1872		C. Hindley Old Book Collector’s Misc. 7: cutting dick. — A ruffian, a swaggerer, &c., as swash-buckler.

cutting shop (n.) [SE undercut]

a shop selling cheap, badly made goods.

1864, 1867, 1870