cutting

Pluralcuttings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of cut.

   She was cutting vegetables when the phone rang.

   Cutting the rope set the small boat adrift.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. After be it builds progressive tenses (she was cutting vegetables). As a gerund it fills a noun slot while keeping a direct object, as in cutting the rope. The true noun takes of instead: the cutting of the ribbon. That object test separates them. In the self-harm use the verb can stand alone, matching the self-harm noun.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The action or process of using a blade to divide or sever something.

   The cutting of the ribbon marked the store's grand opening.

   Steady cutting along the marked line produced a clean edge.

   Similarslicing, severing

   Note

   Here the noun names the work of a blade, and it counts both ways. As a mass noun it heads technical compounds for processes rather than single strokes, such as oxy-acetylene cutting and laser cutting. As a count noun it means separate acts. The 1611 Holy Bible forbids making "cuttings in your flesh," and one can ask how many cuttings a film can undergo.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A leaf, stem, branch, or root taken from a plant and grown on to produce a new plant.

   She took a cutting from the rose bush and planted it in damp soil.

   Several cuttings rooted within a few weeks on the windowsill.

   Similarslip

   Note

   Gardeners propagate plants from cuttings, and the word usually travels in that phrase. Older manuals set it beside other methods. Philip Miller's Gardeners Dictionary (1733) raises vines "either from Layers or Cuttings," and William Marshall (1803) grows box from cuttings, seed or layering. A cutting goes into the soil without roots. Once it forms them, it is a rooted cutting, as in Donna Tartt's The Little Friend (2002).

4. 4
   adjective

   Of a remark or criticism, harsh and likely to wound; curt.

   Her cutting reply silenced the whole room.

   He made a cutting comment about the quality of her work.

   Similarhurtful, barbed, scathing, caustic, biting

   Oppositekind, gentle, flattering

   Note

   Speech borrows the blade's edge here. A cutting remark wounds the way sharp, piercing weather stings the skin. Cutting remark is the classic pairing: Ambrose Philips uses it in 1703, and The Child's Companion, and Juvenile Instructor uses it again in 1861. Cutting criticism and cutting reply follow the same pattern. Curtness is part of the sting, since the hurt comes in few words.

5. 5
   adjective

   Sharp and piercing, especially to the senses.

   A cutting wind swept across the open field at dawn.

   The cutting chill of the mountain air made her eyes water.

   Similarbiting, piercing, bitter, raw, sharp

   Oppositemild, gentle, balmy

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A piece or section removed from a larger whole.

   She set aside a cutting from the fabric to test the dye.

   He kept several cuttings from the old wallpaper as samples.

   Similarpiece, bit, slice, chunk, fragment

   Note

   Most often it appears in the plural for the trimmings left over from a job: cuttings of hair, cuttings of hides and skins, paper cuttings. Chip and slice are close neighbors, but each names a single piece, while cuttings are usually what falls away in quantity. Two narrower meanings grew from this general one: the newspaper clipping and the gardener's cutting.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A piece cut out from a newspaper, such as an article or photograph kept for reference.

   She pinned the cutting about her son's award to the fridge.

   He kept a folder of cuttings about the local team's season.

   Similarclip, snippet, scrap

   Note

   Scrapbooks and archives are where the word lives, usually as newspaper cutting or in the compound press cutting. In Virginia Woolf's Night and Day (1919), Mrs. Seal pastes her cuttings into books. In H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Willett hires an international press-cutting bureau to gather accounts of crimes and accidents abroad.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   The editing of recorded film or audio into its finished form.

   The film's cutting gave the chase scene its tension.

   Rough cutting comes well before the final sound mix.

   Similarediting

   Note

   Film and sound editors use the word for the craft as a whole, so it takes no plural: good cutting, rough cutting. It covers audio recordings as well as pictures. When the meaning is a single, countable pass of editing, English falls back on the general action noun, as in asking how many cuttings a movie can undergo.

9. 9
   adjective

   Designed or used for the purpose of cutting.

   He sharpened the cutting blade of the machine before each shift.

   Every cutting tool must be inspected before it leaves the workshop.

   Note

   The purpose adjective sits before a noun and names what a thing is for, not how it feels: cutting tool, cutting utensil, cutting edge. E. M. Trent's Metal Cutting (1984) places the heat of machining "near the cutting edge of the tool." Contrast the "piercing" adjective, which describes an effect: a cutting wind cuts nothing at all.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    An abridged selection from a written work, often prepared for performance.

    She chose a cutting from Hamlet for her audition.

    The students performed cuttings from several modern plays.

    Similarexcerpt, extract, selection

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