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Cut a Dash

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Make a show. Cut is the French couper, better seen in the noun coup, as a grand coup, a coup de maître (a masterly stroke), so “to cut” means to make a masterly coup, to do something to be looked at and talked about. Dashing means strikingi.e. showy, as a “dashing fellow,” a “dashing equipage.” To cut a dash is to get one’s self looked at and talked about for a showy or striking appearance.

 

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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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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
Cut Capers (To)
Cut it Short
Cut of his Jib
Cut Short
Cut up Rough (To)
Cuthbert
Cuthbert Bede