cutting

• I need some sort of cutting utensil to get through this shrink wrap.
• The power consumed in metal cutting is largely converted into heat near the cutting edge of the tool, and many of the economic and technical problems of machining are caused directly or indirectly by this heating...

• The weather was atrocious, with bitterly cold wind and cutting sleet—rather appropriate, considering Aunt Fonteyn's temperament. - 2004 June, P[atricia] N[ead] Elrod, chapter 12, in Death Masque (Adventures of Jonathan...

• The director gave the auditioning actors cutting criticism.
• [H]e concludes with this cutting remark, But Benefactors may give Money, but not grateful Minds to ſuch as receive it. - 1703, Ambr[ose] Philips, “An Appendix to the Life of Abp. Williams”, in The Life of John Williams,...
• Poor Betsy had often been the subject of Tommy's jokes; many a cutting remark had been made about her dress, which, though clean and whole, was always poor and old-fashioned; [...] - 1861 September, “The Little...

• a cutting chai

• […] there are always some "free lances" who are ready to do a "cutting" trade, and thus become formidable competitors. - 1889, Brewers' Guardian, volume 19, page 159:

• How many different cuttings can this movie undergo?
• Ye ſhall not make any cuttings in your fleſh for the dead, nor print any markes vpon you: I am the Lord. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 19:28, column 1:
• The first stage of the demolition work consisted of removing, by oxy-acetylene cutting, the whole of the plate floor, cross-girders, and lattice parapets. - 1946 January and February, “Notes and News: Demolition of...

• [O]bſerving [...] abundance of Matter floating in the Urine like Bran, with a great Number of Recrements like Cuttings of Hair, ſome above an Inch long, which Subſtances were found in all the Water that I made in above...
• I make such gelatine as above mentioned of two different qualities, [...] and I use all such hides and skins, and cuttings of hides and skins as are usually employed in manufacturing glue according to the ordinary...
• Yet, while paper cuttings can look very modern, paper cutting as an activity has a long, rich heritage. The Chinese, who first invented paper as we know it, started cutting more than a thousand years before most...

Synonyms: chip slice bit chunk clip crumb crumbling cutting flake fleak fragment hunk lump mammock ort piece piecemeal portion scrap scraplet snead snippet steck

1. (countable) A newspaper clipping.

   • Extract from "Newspaper Cuttings relating to Sussex," (Sussex Archaeological Collections, 1872, pp. 140, 141.) - p. 1871, Smuggling & Smugglers in Sussex. […], Brighton, East Sussex: W. J. Smith, […], →OCLC, page 263:
   • The Witness. [After a farther inspection of the newspaper cutting.] No; it is not in that part about Weber, but here [indicating another newspaper cutting] is the agreement that Mr. Wilder was testifying about, and that...
   • Mrs. Seal wandered about with newspaper cuttings, which seemed to her either "quite splendid" or "really too bad for words." She used to paste these into books, or send them to her friends, having first drawn a broad...

   Synonyms: chip slice bit chunk clip crumb crumbling cutting flake fleak fragment hunk lump mammock ort piece piecemeal portion scrap scraplet snead snippet steck

2. (countable, horticulture) A leaf, stem, branch, or root removed from a plant and cultivated to grow a new plant.

   • To propagate by cuttings, is to cut off the branch or ſtem of a Plant, and to ſet it in the Earth without Roots. Strip it of leaves and branches, Plant deeper than theſe with Roots, and in a rich and moiſt ſoil, keeping...
   • All the Sorts of Vines are propagated either from Layers or Cuttings, the former of which is greatly practis'd in England, but the latter is what I would recommend, as being much preferable to the other. [...] I had...
   • The method of propagating the Box is perfectly easy: it may be raised from cuttings, or from seed, or by layering. [...] For planting the cuttings, [Thomas] Hanbury says the month of August is the best time, if any rain...

   Synonyms: chip slice bit chunk clip crumb crumbling cutting flake fleak fragment hunk lump mammock ort piece piecemeal portion scrap scraplet snead snippet steck

• The actor had to make his cutting shorter to fit the audition time.

• [T]he railway, however, will require a farther outlay to render it complete, though the locomotive engine has passed over every foot of ground from Liverpool to Salford. The slopes of the cuttings want dressing, and...
• We flash across the level. / We thunder thro' the bridges. / We bicker down the cuttings. / We sway along the ridges. - 1876, William Ernest Henley, “[Poem] XXI”, in A Book of Verses, 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.:...
• No borrow pit excavation was necessary, and 41,000 cu. yd. were removed from cuttings by excavating machines. - 1944 November and December, “Increasing G.W.R. Line Capacity”, in Railway Magazine, page 367:

Synonyms: cut

Antonyms: embankment

• Boring, drilling, milling, and turning are all different kinds of metal cutting processes.
• Metal-cutting tools often have two cutting edges, both of which are angled to the direction of cutting, and in round-nosed tools the inclination continuously varies [...]. - 2009, Tony Atkins, “Slice–Push Ratio: Oblique...

• Cutting has become one of the most popular forms of self-injury, but there are others at well, and each is just as dangerous as cutting. The information here might help you recognize the signs of self-injury in others....