cut-off

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. That which cuts off or shortens, as a short path or cross-cut. Specifically
2. n. In steam-engines, a contrivance for cutting off the passage of steam from the steamchest to the cylinder, when the piston has made a part of its stroke, leaving the rest of the stroke to be accomplished by the expansive force of the steam already in the cylinder. It economizes steam, and thus saves fuel. See governor.
3. n. A new and shorter channel formed for a river by the waters cutting off or across an angle or bend in its course. Cut-offs, sometimes of great extent, are continually forming in the Mississippi and other western rivers.
4. n. A slide in a delivery-spout in grain-elevators, etc., for shutting off the flow.—5. An arm on a reaper designed to support the falling grain while the platform is being cleared.—6. In plumbing, a connecting pipe.
5. n. An attachment to a magazine firearm which enables the soldier to use it as a single-loader and reserve the cartridges in the magazine.
6. n. In forestry, an artificial channel by which the course of a stream is straightened to facilitate log-driving.
7. n. The practice of stopping or cutting off the admission of motor-fluid, such as steam, to the engine-cylinder before the traverse of the piston is completed. It makes the steam imprisoned in the cylinder work by expansive action after cut-off has occurred, so that the steam is of lower pressure and temperature when the exhaust takes place, and the heat in it is more efficiently utilized. The cut-off is said to be short when the expansion period is long. The expansion or degree of expansion is the reciprocal of the cut-off; that is, if the cut-off is at ⅗ of the stroke, the expansion is , or the steam has the volume which it occupied when the valve closed. The point of cut-off is the point of the piston traverse at which the valve closed.
8. n. A partition or plate in a valve-chest having one or more ports controlled, as to opening and closure, by a cut-off valve.

Wiktionary

1. n. alternative spelling of cutoff.
2. adj. Having had shirt sleeves or pantlegs shortened by cutting material from the end.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. That which cuts off or shortens, as a nearer passage or road.
2. n. The valve gearing or mechanism by which steam is cut off from entering the cylinder of a steam engine after a definite point in a stroke, so as to allow the remainder of the stroke to be made by the expansive force of the steam already let in. See Expansion gear, under Expansion.
3. n. Any device for stopping or changing a current, as of grain or water in a spout.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. detached by cutting
2. v. remove by or as if by cutting
3. v. cease, stop
4. v. remove surgically
5. v. cut off and stop
6. v. break a small piece off from
7. v. make a break in
8. n. a route shorter than the usual one
9. n. a device that terminates the flow in a pipe
10. n. a designated limit beyond which something cannot function or must be terminated