Obs. [app. a. OF. coutel (mod.F. couteau):—L. cultellum knife. Cf. COUTEL. The OF. form in -el was however obsolete before cuttle appears in Eng.] A knife. Also fig.
1546. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. (1550), 14 b. Dysmembrynge hymselfe with a sharpe cuttle in her presence.
1592. Greene, 3rd Pt. Conny-catch., 23. One … came vnto a poore Cutler to haue a Cuttle made vnto his owne minde.
1661. K. W., Conf. Charact. Pragmatick Pulpit-filler (1860), 83. The blunt and notcht cuttles of their wit.
b. transf. or ? = CUTTER1 3.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 139. Away you Cut-purse Rascall, you filthy Bung, away … Ile thrust my Knife in your mouldie Chappes, if you play the sawcie Cuttle with me.
c. Comb., as cuttle-bung, a knife used for cutting purses; cuttle-haft, a popular name of the Yellow Flag, Iris Pseudacorus.
1591. Greene, Disc. Coosnage (1592), 13. In Figging Law, the knife [is called] the Cuttle boung.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 84. He … the fisherman … unsheathed his cuttle-bong, and … dismembered him.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, A Cuttle bung, a knife to cut a purse.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 100/1. Some call … Flag … Sword-point, or Edge-Tool; and others Cuttle-haft.
