[f. CUT v. + -ER1.]
1. One who cuts; one who shapes things by cutting: the name of operatives in many subordinate branches of industry.
1483. Cath. Angl., 88. A Cutter, scissor.
1485. Nottingham Rec., III. 240. Gevyn in ale to þe cutters of the pole jd.
1530. Palsgr., 211/2. Cutter of throtes, coupeur de gorges.
1685. Boyle, Effects of Mot., ii. 12. An experienced cutter of Gems.
1881. Porcelain Works Worcester, 8. The transferrers, who place the prints on the wares; and the cutters, who prepare the paper for them.
b. With adverbs, as cutter-down, -off, -out, etc.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. ii. 53. The cutter off of natures witte.
1611. Cotgr., Avalleur, a … feller, cutter downe.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 114. She was accomplished in all the arts of the needle … a capital cutter-out.
1886. R. F. Burton, Arab. Nts. (abr. ed.), I. 99. Fifty horsemen … cutters-off of the highway, wild as wild Arabs.
c. In many combinations, as fustian-, stone-, wood-cutter, etc.: see these words.
2. spec. † a. A hair-cutter. Obs.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 652/8. Hic tonsor, cuttere. Hic rasor, a shawere.
1624. Heywood, Captives, III. ii. I sought the villadge through and cold find neare a cutter.
b. A carver, sculptor, engraver.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 25 b. Payntors, cutters, grauers, glasiers, and embrodurers.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 105. In this Hippopatom the cutter chose rather to follow then reforme an error.
1880. Warren, Book-plates, xii. 126. Naming Durer as its designer, but not as its cutter upon the wood-block.
c. † (a) A tailor. Obs. (b) Now, The person employed in a tailoring or similar establishment to take the measures and cut out the cloth.
1599. Minsheu, Sp. Dict., Claravoya, iags or cuts in garments, such as cutters inuent for gentle-women.
1668. R. L’Estrange, Vis. Quev., 6. Another called himself a Cutter, we ask’d him whether in Wood or Stone? Neither, said he, but in Cloth and Stuff: (Anglice, a Taylor).
1885. Law Times, LXXX. 8/1. Employed by … a tailor in Regent-street, as a cutter and fitter of wearing apparel.
d. One who cuts or castrates animals.
1562. Leigh, Armorie (1597), 53. This my Bore is chast, for my cutter hath cut him.
1603. Canterbury Marriage Licences (MS.), Anthony Latenden of Wittersham, horse cutter.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4182/4. He … is by Trade a Cutter of Pigs.
1888. in Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk.
† 3. One over-ready to resort to weapons; a bully, bravo; also, a cutthroat, highway-robber. Obs.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 85. He … gathered together a companye of Roysters and Cutters, and practised robberyes.
1581. Pettie, trans. Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., III. (1586), 135 b. Like these cutters, and hackers, who will take the wall of men, and picke quarrells.
1607. R. C., trans. H. Stephen’s World of Wonders, 95. A theefe, or rather a cutter by the high way.
a. 1734. North, Lives, II. 57. His infirmities were passion, in which he would swear like a cutter [etc.].
1826. Scott, Woodst., xxvii. I see, sir, you understand cutter’s law—when one tall fellow has coin, another must not be thirsty.
† b. Applied to some riotous weavers in 1769.
1769. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 124/1. The new body of cutters, that have made a fresh disturbance in the neighbourhood of Spital-fields, are handkerchief-weavers. Ibid., 132/2. Fifty weavers, commonly called cutters, all masked, assembled … in Hoxton-square.
1770. Monthly Rev., 77. Two of the Spitalsfields rioters, or cutters, were sentenced to be hanged.
4. That which cuts; an implement or tool for cutting; the cutting part of a machine, etc.
Used in a number of specific applications in various trades, and in numerous combinations, as chaff-cutter, disc-cutter, turnip-cutter, etc.
1631. Star Chamb. Cases (Camden), 84. He provided rules and cutters for making of farthings.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 163. Another Workman takes them [iron bars] whilst hot and puts them through the Cutters.
1788. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, VI. 200. In cutting small Wheels, Nuts, or Pinions, the Cutter must go in between the Chaps.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 60. Giving rotatory motion to a circular horizontal cutter.
1859. Handbk. Turning, 65. Slide the cutter towards the edge of the work by turning the screw of the slide rest.
b. One of the front or cutting teeth; an incisor.
1579. J. Jones, Preserv. Bodie & Soule, I. xxi. 40. Whereof eight [teeth] be cutters, foure biters, and twentie grinders.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., Manual, IV. xii. 348. In Man they [the teeth] are of a threefold figure: Cutters, Dog-teeth, and Grinders.
1691. Ray, Creation, 190 (J.). The Cutters [are] before, that they may be ready to cut off a morsel from any solid Food, to be transmitted to the Grinders.
5. One who or that which cuts, in various transferred senses of the verb (see the quots.); one who cuts an acquaintance; a cutting remark, etc.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1676), 625. See, the cutter of my words riseth.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 232. Then apply a Repeller, as Oyl of Roses, with which mingle cutters, or Vinegar.
1691. T. Browne, Mr. Bays Changing Relig. (ed. 2), 15. This is a cutter, by my faith Mr. Bays, it lashes somewhere with a vengeance.
1781. Smeathman, in Phil. Trans., LXXI. 179, note. Not only all his cloaths were destroyed by white Ants or Cutters, but his papers also.
1798. [see CUTTEE].
1835. Fraser’s Mag., XII. 145. I never cut any one … and have, indeed, a very considerable contempt for all cutters.
1882. Knowledge, No. 19. 409/2. The cards are not shuffled between the cuts, so that the cutter, if he fails the first time, has a rather better chance next time.
6. Mining. A crack or fissure intersecting the bedding or lines of stratification; the cleavage of slate (usually in pl.); a crack in a crystal or precious stone. dial.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, Jrnl. (1884), 25. A soft sandy stone, so open in the cutters, and so loose, that the ground above it can have very little moisture.
1785. Hutton, in Trans. R. Soc. Edin. (1788), I. 259. A stratum of porous sandstone does not abound so much with veins and cutters as a similar stratum of marble.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 34. Some [slates] of a muddy brown complexion along the cutters.
1865. Page, Geol. Terms, Cutters, a quarryman’s term for any narrow crack or fissure that cuts or crosses the strata; hence ‘backs and cutters’ for what is known to geologists as the jointed structure.
7. A superior quality of brick, which can be cut and rubbed, called also cutting brick; used for arches of doorways and windows, quoins, etc.
1842. Gwilt, Archit. (1876), 526. The finest marl stocks … are technically called firsts, or cutters…. There is also a red cutting brick, whose texture is similar to the malm cutter, which must not be confounded with the red stock.
1881. Every man his own Mechanic, § 1152. The bricks are sorted into classes known as cutters … picked stocks, etc.
8. Comb., chiefly belonging to sense 4, as cutter-block, -frame, -screw, -stock, various parts of cutting-machines or cutting-tools; cutter-bar, (a) a bar in which cutting-tools are so fastened as to serve for circular cutting, as in a machine for boring the inside of cylinders; (b) the bar in a mowing or reaping machine that bears the knives; cutter-grinder, an implement for sharpening the cutters of reaping machines, etc.; cutter-head, the revolving head of a tool with cutters or sharpened edges; cutter-wheel, a wheel serving for cutting.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 217. If we suppose the cutter, or rather the cutter-frame to move upon a pivot. Ibid. (1833), II. 130. This cutter-block is constructed to slide upon the hollow cast iron shaft … a metal stopper inside connected with the cutter-head by pins.
1862. Chambers’ Encycl., s.v. Cork, Cutter-wheels and other suitable machines are brought to bear on the revolving cork.
1873. J. Richards, Wood-working Factories, 80. Cutter-screws and bolts should be made of the very best refined iron.
