1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Gutts, a very fat gross Person.
4. (artists’ and colloquial).—Spirit; quality; a touch of force, or energy, or fire: e.g., a picture, a book, an actor. With guts = a strong thing. Put your guts into it (aquatic) = Row the very best you can. He (or it) has no guts in him (or it) = He (or it) is a common rotter (q.v.). Hence, Gutsy, adj. = having guts, and Gutsiness, subs. = the condition of being gutsy.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, I. The fellow’s well enough if he had any guts in his brain.
1893. Pall Mall Budget. No. 1292 (June 29), 1906. The body of the cigar, or what might vulgarly be called the guts.
Verb (vulgar).—1. To plunder, or take out all or most of the contents (i.e., intestines) of a place or thing; to drain; to ‘clean out’: e.g., to gut a house (thieves’) = to rifle it; to gut an oyster = to eat it; to gut a book = to empty it of interesting matter; to gut a quart pot = to drain at a draught. Whence, Gutted = dead-broke.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 1. Whether diddling your subjects or gutting their jobs.
1849–61. Macaulay, Hist. of England. The king’s printing-house … was, to use a coarse metaphor, which then for the first time came into fashion, completely gutted. [[238]]
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 373. Well, we’ve got the guts out of you!