[-ING2.]
1. That cuts, in various senses of the verb.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 12802. A kene spere, cuttyng before.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 43. Full of cutting and sharpe rockes.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vii. 109. It is of a cooling, cutting, and penetrating faculty.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3247/4. Two Swords, one … with a full cutting Blade.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 215. Their Edge Tools … are also of a different shape … towards the cutting end.
1885. H. C. McCook, Tenants Old Farm, 240. Several large colonies of cutting-ants.
b. Of wind, weather, etc.
1798. Southey, Eng. Eclogues, iv. ’Tis cutting keen! I smart at every breath.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., 270. In Lightning and cutting hail.
1834. Ht. Martineau, Farrers, i. 1. Perhaps you don’t know, Ma’am, what a cutting wind it is.
c. That cuts down prices or undersells. colloq.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 262 (Hoppe). Those employers who seek to reduce the prices of a trade are known technologically as ‘cutting employers.’ Ibid. (1861), III. 425/2. By that time other ‘cutting’ shops were opened.
1884. Christian World, 12 June, 443/4. An employer of the cutting sort would … say ‘Now, we must produce this article for a shilling less.’
2. That acutely wounds the mind or feelings.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 111. Dido the poore Princesse gauld with such destenye cutting, Crau’s mortal passadge.
1652. C. Stapylton, Herodian, XIV. 115. Their cutting quips and wonted jeering.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, IV. iv. 31. You said cutting things! Very cutting things.
a. 1796. H. Venn, in Compl. Duty Man, Mem. (1841), 18. The cutting affliction of losing you.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, ix. 123. He can say the driest, most cutting things in the quietest of tones.
† 3. That is a ‘cutter’ or swaggering blade. Obs.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1860), 3. Cutting Hufsnufs Roisters.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, v. 19. Wherefore have I such a company of cutting knaves to wait upon me. Ibid. (1592), Disput., 28. Brave youthfull Gentlemen and cutting companions.
[1821. Scott, Kenilw., xix. The cutting mercer of Abingdon … dashing Master Goldthred.]
