▪ I. ˈcross-cut, n.
[cross- 4 a, b.]
1. (Usually cross cut.) A cut or cutting across or from side to side; a direct path between two points, transverse or diagonal to the main way.
| 1800 Spirit Pub. Jrnls. IV. 186 If you have occasion to travel frequently to one place, take all the cross cuts. 1837 R. Ellison Kirkstead 27 Deep cross-cuts lurk the treacherous shrubs below. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. V. xiv. 492 He knew the by-ways..and the cross-cuts and roads as far as Brunswick. |
2. Mining. A cutting across the course of a vein, or across the general direction of the workings.
| 1789 J. Williams Min. Kingdom (1810) I. 312 It is..proper to push forward cross cuts from your first trench every way. 1851 Greenwell Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 20 Crosscut, an excavation driven at an acute angle to the direction of the cleavage or cleat. 1872 Raymond Statist. Mines 326 A cross-cut is being run from the main shaft..95 or 100 feet below the surface. |
3. A step in dancing.
| 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 62/2 Single shuffle, double shuffle, cut and cross-cut. |
4. Short for cross-cut file: see next, 2.
| 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 302 For working iron..the single lines are closely cut over diagonally and the file becomes a cross-cut. |
5. Short for cross-cut saw.
| 1848 E. Atkinson Otago Jrnl. III. 46 Pit-saws; whit saws; and crosscuts, and files for ditto. 1853 ‘P. Paxton’ Yankee in Texas 89 Felling trees, handling cross-cuts, rolling blocks. 1942 L. Rich We took to Woods (1948) 55 Excellence on a two-man cross-cut has nothing to do with size and strength. |
6. Cinemat. (See cross-cut v. 2.)
▪ II. ˈcross-cut, a.
1. Adapted for cross-cutting.
| 1828 Webster, Crosscut-saw, a saw managed by two men, one at each end for sawing large logs or trees across. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Cross-cut Chisel, a chisel with a narrow edge and considerable depth, used in cutting a groove in iron. 1880 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 173 Large trees mostly sawn down by the cross-cut saw. |
2. [cross- 8.] Cut across or transversely; having transverse cuts; esp. of a file, having two sets of teeth crossing each other diagonally.
| 1833 J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 127 The files used by the whitesmith upon cold work are mostly of the cross-cut description. 1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 135 A deep cross-cut fallow. |
▪ III. ˌcross-ˈcut, v.
[cross- 6.]
1. trans. To cut across or transversely.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. x. 59 A..humour rancorous..That..Cros-cuts the liver with internall smart. 1655 Culpepper Riverius ii. iii. 67 In a Medium [in Optics] that is Convex and thick, the species are..broken, and as it were cross-cut. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §108 The quarry-men proceed to cross-cut the large flats. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 377 The plough..drawn across the field, and cross-cutting the uncut ribs of grass. |
2. Cinemat. To subject (a film or films) to cross-cutting (see quot. 1933). Also intr. and transf. Hence as adj. and n.
| 1933 A. Brunel Filmcraft 95 You may need part of a rejected take because you are cross-cutting that scene. Ibid. 97 After you have eliminated the scene numbers..you can begin to make the simpler cross-cuts. Ibid. 156 Cross-cut, to alternate in editing two or more scenes—as when one has two close-ups of characters facing each other. 1957 Manvell & Huntley Film Music ii. 40 The two scenes of the dancing action were hastily lengthened and cross-cut to give a rhythm. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Dec. 698/1 Haddock's gestures as he tells the story exactly match and are cross-cut with those of the Chevalier de la Hadoque slashing away at the ruffians boarding his ship. 1962 Listener 30 Aug. 328/1 A montage sequence..with shots of Eton, night-club frolics..cross-cut against back⁓street slums. 1967 Spectator 30 June 772/1 The author has developed an impressive, cinematic technique for telling this story, crosscutting rapidly from episode to episode. |