CUT AND THRUST. To give point with a sword after striking a slash.
CUT A STICK, To. To make off clandestinely.—Cut your stick, be off, or go away.
CUTE. Sharp, crafty, apparently from acute; but some insist that it is the Anglo-Saxon word cuth, rather meaning certain, known, or familiar.
CUTH. A name given in Orkney and Shetland to the coal-fish, before it is fully grown; perhaps the same as [piltock] (which see).
CUTLAS, or Coutelas. A sabre which was slightly curved, but recently applied to the small-handled swords supplied to the navy—the cutlash of Jack. By Shakspeare called a curtle-axe; thus Rosalind, preparing to disguise herself as a man, is made to say,
"A gallant curtle-ax upon my thigh."
CUT-LINE. The space between the bilges of two casks stowed end to end.
CUT OFF. A term used to denote a vessel's being seized by stratagem by the natives, and the crew being murdered. Also, to intercept a retreat.
CUT OF THE JIB. A phrase for the aspect of a vessel, or person.
CUT OUT, To. To attack and carry a vessel by a boat force; one of the most dashing and desperate services practised by Nelson and Cochrane, of which latter that of cutting out the Esmeralda at Callao stands unequalled.