ˈdaisy-cutter
[lit. ‘cutter of daisies’: see daisy n. 1 b.]
1. A horse that in trotting lifts its feet only very slightly from the ground.
| 1791 ‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsem. xvi. (1809) 129, I luckily picked up a Daisy-cutter, by his throwing me down on the smoothest part of the grass. 1847 Youatt Horse iv. 87 The careless daisy-cutter, however pleasant on the turf, should..be avoided. 1867 Reade Griffith Gaunt (1889) 5 Daisy-cutters were few in those days. |
2. Cricket and Baseball. A ball so bowled or batted as to skim along the surface of the ground.
| 1857 Bell's Life 1 Nov. 7/1 The umpires called play, Grange being again on the defensive to the under-hand ‘daisy cutters’ of Sadler. 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Yankee at Crt. K. Arthur (Tauchn.) II. 226 I've seen him catch a daisy-cutter in his teeth. 1891 Farmer Slang Dict., Daisy-cutter, a ball which travels more than half the ‘pitch’ along the ground without rising; a ‘sneak’. 1963 Times 13 June 13/3 The ball that kept low had to be a daisy-cutter although a first-class cricket pitch has surely been sufficiently mown to lose all likeness to a flowery meadow. |
So ˈdaisy-cutting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 461 Nimble daisy-cutting nags. 1837 T. Hook Jack Brag i, None of your bowling-green, daisy-cutting work for us. 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports ii. ii. i. §3. 502 The..low daisy-cutting form which suits the smooth turf of our race-courses. |