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Cut

.

To renounce acquaintance. There are four sorts of cut—

(1) The cut direct is to stare an acquaintance in the face and pretend not to know him.

(2) The cut indirect, to look another way, and pretend not to see him.

(3) The cut sublime, to admire the top of some tall edifice or the clouds of heaven till the person cut has passed by.

(4) The cut infernal, to stoop and adjust your boots till the party has gone past.

There is a very remarkable Scripture illustration of the word cut, meaning to renounce: “Jehovah took a staff and cut it asunder, in token that He would break His covenant with His people; and He cut another staff asunder, in token that He would break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel” (Zech. xi. 7–14).

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Curthose
Curtise
Curtmantle
Curule Chair
Curzon Street (London)
Cussedness
Custard
Custard Coffin
Customer
Custos Rotulorum (keeper of the rolls)
Cut
Cut
Cut Blocks with a Razor (To)
Cut neither Nails nor Hair at Sea
Cut Off with a Shilling
Cut out
Cut your Coat according to your Cloth
Cut a Dash
Cut and Dry
Cut and Run
Cut Away

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Dash
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