Heading
terously or fantastically. [From cut, a verb of action, + caper (q.v.) a freakish proceeding or prank.] Cf., Cut didoes. Fr., battre un huit.
1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, Act i., Sc. 3. Sir And. Faith, I can cut a caper.
c. 1626. Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen's Old Plays, ii., 68. Pike, Could I shake those chaines off I would cutt capers : poore Dick Pike would dance though Death pip'd to him.
1712. Spectator, No. 324. Others are called the dancing-masters, and teach their scholars to cut capers by running swords through their legs.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxvii. He . . . . hied him home to his bride, to communicate his happiness, cutting capers, and talking to himself all the way.
1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle's Stratagem, Act iv., Sc. 1. Har. Why, isn't it a shame to see so many stout, well-built young fellows, masquerading, and cutting courants here at home, instead of making the French cut capers to the tune of your cannon; or sweating the Spaniards with an English fandango?
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xx., p. 208. Jonas only laughed at this, and getting down from the coach-top with great alacrity, cut a cumbersome kind of caper in the road.
Cut a Dash, Splash, or Shine,
verbal phr. (general).—To make
a show; to attract attention
through some idiosyncrasy of
manner, appearance, or conduct.
In the United States to cut a
splurge or cut a swathe. Fr.,
flamber; faire du flafla; and faire
flouer.
1771. Foote, Maid of Bath, I. But the squire does not intend to cut a dash till the spring.
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxii. Well, they cut as many shines as Uncle Peleg. One frigate they guessed would captivate, sink, or burn our whole navy.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxxi. Gin and water was the ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one of its denizens inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours generally did so with a bottom of brandy.
1884. S. L. Clemens ('M. Twain'), Hucklebury[*Huckleberry] Finn, xxiii., 227. It would a made a cow laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut.
1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 1 Sept., p. 5, col. 4. It is while they are in the land of the living that I should like to see the Australian Croesuses spending their money. Why don't they—to use a very vulgar but very expressive locution—cut a splash with their magnificent revenues?
Cut a Figure, verbal phr. (common).—To
make an appearance,
good or bad.
1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy. vol. II., ch. ii. You will cut no contemptible figure in a metaphysic circle.
1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. x. When Moses has trimmed them [the horses] a little, they will cut a very tolerable figure.
1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. i. He certainly cut a droll figure.
Cut and Come Again, phr.
(colloquial).—Plenty: i.e., if one
cut does not suffice plenty remains
to come at again.
1738. Swift, Polite Conv., dial. ii. I vow, 'tis a noble sir-loyn. Neverout. Ay; here's cut and come again.
1821. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, tour III., ch. iv. Something of bold and new design Dug from the never-failing mine, That's work'd within your fertile brain, Where all is cut and come again.
Subs. (venery).—The female pudendum.
Cut-Away, subs. (common).—A
morning coat. [From comparison
to a frock-coat, the lappets in
front being 'cut away.'] For
synonyms, see Capella.
1866. London Miscellany, 5 Jan., p. 201. ' London Revelations.' He wore a Newmarket cutaway, with huge flaps and pockets monopolising the whole of the skirts, suggestive of being receptacles for plunder.
