Also cutt, -e. [Origin and original sense uncertain.
This has been usually regarded as merely a special use of CUT sb.2 (under which it is still treated in recent dictionaries); but to this identification two considerations are opposed. First, cut ‘the act or result of cutting’ is (like such verbal derivatives generally) a word only of Modern English, known from the 16th c., while cut ‘lot’ goes back before 1300, standing quite alone without any sense of CUT sb.2 to explain or support it. Secondly, in ME., in the verb CUT and its pa. pple., the forms kyt, kit, ket are of constant occurrence, but no such spellings are found for this word, only cut, cutt (cutte). The latter circumstance opposes also any such suggestion as that cut ‘lot’ is an absolute use of the pa. pple. meaning ‘the cut stick or straw,’ ‘the cut or marked thing drawn,’ a use which would besides be very difficult to admit at so early a date. There is no cognate word, and no derivative from any word meaning ‘cutting,’ used in the other Teutonic languages; in these the word LOT, with its cognates, is the native term. It is evident that drawing cuts has been from the 13th c. a more popular form of sortilege, or a more popular and colloquial expression for it, than ‘casting lots.’ Welsh has cwt ‘a little piece, a cut, a gobbet, a lot’ (Silvan Evans); cwt lot occurs in Salesbury’s transl. of the Bible, 1520; and the word has in Welsh the derivatives cwtws lot, lottery-ticket, share, cwtysyn lot, ticket; but it may be from English.]
1. = LOT: in the phrase draw cuts, originally draw (or lay) cut, applied to a ready way of casting lots, by the chance drawing of sticks or straws of unequal length.
The simplest and most usual way is to take as many bits of straw, stick, or the like, as there are persons concerned, one of these bits being shorter (or it may be longer) than the others; these being held so that one end only is exposed, each person draws one of the bits for himself, and he who chances to draw the bit differing in length is the person to whom the lot falls. In later use each bit is called a cut, but in earlier use the decisive bit appears as the ‘cut.’
α. To draw (lay) cut.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16699 (Cott.). A-bute his kirtel drou þai cutt.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xxi. 18. On my clathe þai laid kut.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 465–7. I rede, that cut among us alle We drawe, and let se wher the cut wil falle; And he that hath the cut, with herte blithe Schal renne to the toun.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxv. 293. I rede we drawe cutte for þis coote. Ibid., 295. The schorte cutte schall wynne.
1483. Cath. Angl., 88. To drawe Cutte, sortiri.
1533. More, Apol., xxxvii. Wks. 903/1. Let them draw cut betwene them.
β. To draw cuts.
1450–1530. Myrr. Our Ladye, p. lviii. They drew cuttes amonge them whiche of theym shulde be kyllyd.
1530. Palsgr., 526/2. I drawe lottes, or drawe cuttes, as folkes do for sporte, je joue au court festu [short straw].
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1613), 154. My daughter Mopsa … may draw cuts, and the shortest cut speake first.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., V. i. 422. Wee’l draw Cuts for the Signior.
1600. Maides Metam., IV. in Bullen, O. Pl., I. 149. Whether shall begin his note? Draw cuttes … content; the longest shall begin.
1641. Brome, Joviall Crew, III. Wks. 1873, III. 405. I am pussell’d in the choice. Would some sworne Brother … were here to draw a Cut with me.
1653. Walton, Angler, 75. I think it is best to draw cuts and avoid contention…. Look, the shortest Cut fals to Coridon.
a. 1745. Swift, Direct. Servants. Who is to stay at home is to be determined by short and long cuts.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! II. xi. 295. We three will draw cuts for the honour of going with him.
† b. The drawing or casting of lots: † with or by cut, by lot. Obs.
12[?]. Leges quat. Burgorum, liv. (Sc. Stat.), Et sciendum est quod stallangiator nullo tempore potest habere loth cut neque cavyl de aliquo mercimonio cum burgense.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xv. 6. Strengis … fell as wiþ kut.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. viii. 27. Be cut or cavil that pleid sone partid was.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), I. 39. Be cut and cavill than till his part fell he.
† 2. (One’s) lot, fate, fortune; fate or fortune as a ruler of events. Obs.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xxx. 18. In þi hend [are] my kuttes.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., cxlv. Hir that has the cuttis two In hand, both of ȝour wele and of ȝour wo.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert, 1367. To þe couent he him putt In religioun to prove his cutt. Ibid., 6743. To england felle a sary cutt.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. iii. 76. Quhilk is by cutt gevin me to bair in hand.
1530. Palsgr., 211/2. Culte or lotte, sort.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., I. (1646), 206. You see … how fortunate a cut those Gods have given us, whom wee robbed.
