Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Capable of or designed for incising, shearing, or severing.
  • adjective Sharply penetrating; piercing.
  • adjective Injuring or capable of injuring the feelings of others.
  • noun A part cut off from a main body.
  • noun A part, such as a stem, leaf, or root, removed from a plant to propagate a new plant, as through rooting or grafting.
  • noun An excavation made through high ground in a construction project.
  • noun The editing of film or recording tape.
  • noun Chiefly British A clipping, as from a newspaper.
  • noun Self-injury in which cuts are made in the skin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A piece cut off; a slip; a slice; a clipping.
  • noun A section; a thin slice used for microscopical purposes.
  • noun A slip cut from a newspaper or other print containing a paragraph or an article which one wishes to use or preserve.
  • noun An excavation made through a hill or rising ground, in constructing a road, railway, canal, etc.: the opposite of a filling.
  • noun The action of a horse when he strikes the inner and lower part of the fetlock-joint with the opposite hoof while traveling.
  • noun A caper; a curvet.
  • noun In coal-mining, work done in mining or getting coal so that it may be broken down.
  • noun plural The refuse obtained from the sieve of a hutch.
  • noun plural Bruised groats, or oats prepared for gruel, porridge, etc.
  • noun See the extract.
  • Penetrating or dividing by a cut, as of an edged tool; serving to penetrate or divide; sharp.
  • 2. Wounding or deeply affecting the feelings, as with pain, shame, etc.; satirical; severe: applied to persons or things: as, he was very cutting; a cutting remark.
  • Thieving; swaggering; bullying.
  • noun A process in bookbinding. After gluing, rounding, and backing, the edges are cut in a special machine. Cutting is one of the secondary processes included in the general term forwarding. See forwarding, n., 2.
  • noun An area upon which the entire stand has been cut.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act or process of making an incision, or of severing, felling, shaping, etc.
  • noun Something cut, cut off, or cut out, as a twig or scion cut off from a stock for the purpose of grafting or of rooting as an independent plant; something cut out of a newspaper; an excavation cut through a hill or elsewhere to make a way for a railroad, canal, etc.; a cut.
  • adjective Adapted to cut.
  • adjective Chilling; penetrating; sharp.
  • adjective Severe; sarcastic; biting.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of cut.
  • noun countable, uncountable The action of the verb to cut.
  • noun countable A section removed from the larger whole.
  • noun countable A newspaper clipping.
  • noun countable A leaf, stem, branch, or root removed from a plant and cultivated to grow a new plant.
  • noun countable An abridged selection of written work, often intended for performance.
  • noun uncountable The editing of film or other recordings.
  • noun uncountable Self-harm; the act of cutting one's own skin.
  • noun countable A narrow passage, dug for a road, railway or canal to go through.
  • adjective not comparable That is used for cutting.
  • adjective Of remarks, criticism, etc., potentially hurtful.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of penetrating or opening open with a sharp edge
  • noun the act of shortening something by chopping off the ends
  • noun the activity of selecting the scenes to be shown and putting them together to create a film
  • noun the division of a deck of cards before dealing
  • noun the act of cutting something into parts
  • noun the act of diluting something
  • adjective painful as if caused by a sharp instrument
  • noun an excerpt cut from a newspaper or magazine
  • noun removing parts from hard material to create a desired pattern or shape
  • noun a part (sometimes a root or leaf or bud) removed from a plant to propagate a new plant through rooting or grafting

Etymologies

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  • "The journey piobaireachd'>into piobaireachd starts with a series of simple gracenotes called 'cuttings', made by raising and lowering a finger smartly while another note is being sounded. Cuttings are the commonest piping gracenotes and they do two jobs: (a) they add varying force of emphasis to a note—important because the piper does not have other ways of doing this, such as playing more loudly or softly ... and (b) they separate two or more notes at the same pitch—a characteristic blend of elegance and usefulness, so often found in piping."

    —William Donaldson, Pipers: A Guide to the Players and Music of the Highland Bagpipe (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2005),10

    July 27, 2008