▪ I. cut-out, n.
(kʌtˈaʊt, ˈkʌtaʊt)
[cut v. 57.]
1. a. Electr. Engin. A contrivance for automatically cutting lamps, motors, or other electrical appliances out of circuit, when the current supplied to them reaches a point at which it is undesirable to work.
One of the commonest kinds is a fuse or fusible cut-out, a short piece of metal in circuit which melts when the current attains an unsafe magnitude. There are also other kinds, mostly electro-magnetic in their form, which may be made to act with an increase, a decrease, or a change in direction of current. The name was formerly sometimes applied to a short-circuiting switch on a telegraph circuit.
| 1874 in Knight Dict. Mech. 1887 Spons Househ. Management (1887) 95 Cut-outs or safety valves, are essential to the security of a house. 1888 Rules & Regul. Teleg. Eng. & Electricians 23 All circuits should be protected with cut-outs. ― 24 Where fusible cut-outs are used, etc. 1893 Verity & Sons' Compend. 34 Automatic magnetic cut-out. |
b. In an internal-combustion engine, a valve through which exhaust gases can escape without passing through the silencer.
| 1905 Motor Cycle 2 Jan. 6 An exhaust cut-out. 1906 Daily Chron. 17 July 3/3 Nothing is easier than to have a ‘cut-out’ in the exhaust pipe, worked by a wire from the steering column, and so produce this noise and eliminate the back pressure whenever you wish. 1907 Public Opinion 17 May 628/2 The attention of the Committee of the Royal Automobile Club has been called to the increase in the use of sirens and exhaust cut-outs by certain motorists. 1926 T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (1935) viii. xciv. 521 The cars, with closed cut-out, would..carry the trenches by surprise. |
2. a. The space formed by a piece or section being cut out (as of a floor). U.S.
| 1851 A. O. Hall Manhattaner in New Orleans v. 30 Above the bar and post-office (the former..looked down upon through a wide cut-out in the floor) are the..reading-rooms of the merchants. |
b. A railway or canal cutting. U.S.
| 1898 Engineering Mag. XVI. 116/1 The dredge by which the cut-outs were excavated and embankments constructed. |
c. A figure cut out (or designed for cutting out) of paper, cloth, cardboard, wood, etc.; spec. in Theatr. (see quot. 1961). Also fig.
| 1905 Calkins & Holden Art of Mod. Advertising 10 The grocer must be supplied with attractive counter slips, ‘hangers’, window-cards, ‘cut-outs’, posters and other forms of lithographed matter. 1920 E. G. Lutz Animated Cartoons 84 This model, specifically spoken of as a ‘cut-out’, is pushed over the background under the camera and photographed. 1923 Daily Mail 1 Mar. 6 (Advt.), The famous Polly Pratt cut-outs for the kiddies. 1927 E. G. Lutz Motion-Pict. Cameraman 169 A series of cut-outs for a continued action. 1927 Daily Express 27 Sept. 5/2 Cut-outs are all the rage—cut-outs in wood and in cardboard painted. 1927 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Dec. 68/3 It would be easy enough to adapt for the purpose the various animal cut-outs and illustrations. 1927 Home Notes 17 Dec. 863/2 Embroidered Appliqué and Making Directions Supplied with Each Cut-Out. 1949 Here & Now (N.Z.) Oct. 14/2 The stage size is the same every night—props are at a minimum, and such customary essentials as drapes..and cut-outs are eliminated. 1956 Essays in Criticism VI. 372 The character of Harcourt, which the author has simply left as a cardboard cut-out. 1959 J. Masters Fandango Rock 328 The upper row of the Moorish arches made the familiar pattern of cut-outs in brown-red paper against a backdrop of blue. 1961 Bowman & Ball Theatre Lang. 90 Cut out, cut-out, cutout, a small flat, usually of profile board, cut to simulate trees, rocks, etc... Hence cut-out scenery. 1971 B. Callison Plague of Sailors 15 The mountain was still a jet black two-dimensional cut-out. |
3. a. An act of cutting out cattle from the herd. U.S.
| 1874 J. G. McCoy Cattle Trade 81 In the beginning of the cut-out, a few gentle cows or working oxen are driven a short space from the round-up and held, to form a nucleus, to which those cut out gather. 1907 C. E. Mulford Bar-20 xi. 120 In this contest Hopalong Cassidy led his nearest rival, Red Connors,..by twenty cut-outs. 1920 ― J. Nelson xxiii. 254 Sam saw no use of collecting infants only to have them turned loose at the cut-out. |
b. A place where cut-out animals are collected.
| 1920 J. M. Hunter Trail Drivers of Texas 98 Our camp was the catch and cut-out for all the other horses. |
c. The finish of shearing, end of shearing-time; completion of the shearing of a specified group of sheep (e.g. the rams) or of a particular flock, etc. Austral. and N.Z.
| 1900 H. Lawson Over Sliprails 33 It was within a couple of days of cut-out, so I told Mitchell—who was shearing—that I'd camp up the Billabong and wait for him. 1922 C. G. Turner Happy Wanderer 143 A ‘cut-out’—the finishing of a line of sheep or of the shed itself. 1926 J. Devanny Butcher Shop vii. 73 Another two days would have seen the cut out. 1959 H. P. Tritton Time means Tucker iv. 34/1 At the cut-out, when we were at the office getting our cheques. |
4. A person acting as middle-man, esp. in espionage. slang.
| 1963 J. Joesten They call it Intelligence i. i. 44 A very important figure in espionage is the ‘cutout’. This is a trusted middleman. 1966 M. R. D. Foot SOE in France iv. 94 A cut-out..is a means of establishing contact between two agents which..affords the minimum for the enemy security services to bite on. One agent passes a message in a simple code to the cut-out... The cut-out holds the message till approached by the next agent down the line. 1969 E. Ambler Intercom Conspiracy (1970) ii. 45 Through our cut-out I have made an offer for the shares. |
▪ II. cut-out, a.
[See cut v. 57 j and cut ppl. a. 11.]
Formed by cutting out a piece of paper, cloth, cardboard, etc.; of or pertaining to the piece cut out. Cf. cut-out n. 2 c.
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 40 Behind the cut-out letters is pasted oil paper. 1873 Young Englishwoman Apr. 202/2 Make a deep flounce..and set this under the cut-out place. 1886 Kipling Plain Tales from Hills (1888) 88 Mrs. Hauksbee was expecting some cut-out pattern things in flimsy paper. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 4 June 7/2 The slate-coloured cut-out frames, on which the prints are mounted. 1927 E. G. Lutz Motion-Pict. Cameraman 162 Cut-out figures photographed in sequence. 1929 Publishers' Circular 22 June 73 Attractive cut-out figures, in full colours. 1970 New York III. 7 Dec. 61/2 The Tom Thumb finger-puppet theater with cut-out figures. |