customs-duty 
customs-duty (kus'tumz-du"ti), . The tax 
levied on merchandise imported from or (in 
some countries) exported to a foreign country. 
See custom, n., 4. 
customs-union (kus'tumz-u"uyon), n. A union 
of independent states or nations for the pur- 
pose of effecting common or similar arrange- 
ments for the collection of duties on imports, 
etc. ; specifically, the Zollverein (which see). 
Austria perceived that, after all, it would be impossible 
for her to create a Custoins.Unwn that did not include 
Prussia. Lome, Bismarck, I. 195. 
custos (kus'tos), .; pi. custodes (kus-to'dez). 
[L., a keeper: see custody, custode.] 1. A keep- 
er ; a custodian. 
On the 21st [of April] Gloucester was appointed lieuten- 
ant and custos of the kingdom. Stulibs, Const. Hist., 338. 
2. In music, the sign <w or v, at the end of a 
line or page, to show the position of the first 
note of the next. Custos brevlum, formerly, the 
principal clerk of the English Common Pleas. Custos 
Messium, a constellation proposed by Lalande in 1775. 
It embraced parts of Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and Camelopar- 
dalis, and had a star of the fourth magnitude stolen from 
each of the last two constellations. Custos Rotulorum, 
in England, the keeper of the rolls or records (of the ses- 
sion) ; the chief civil officer of a county. Abbreviated C. R. 
Custos Sigilli, the keeper of the seal. Abbreviated C. S. 
CUStrelH (kus'trel), n. [<. OF. coustillier, a sol- 
dier armed with a poniard, (. coustille, a poniard, 
ult. < L. cultellus, a knife: see custil and cois- 
tril.~\ A buckler-bearer or servant to a man-at- 
arms. See citltellarius. 
Every one had an archer, a demi-lance, and a custrel, 
... or servant pertaining to him. 
Lord Herbert, Hist. Hen. VIII., p. 9. 
custrel a t, custrilt, . Same as eostrel. 
CUStumt, . An obsolete form of custom, 
custumalt, CUStumaryt. See customal, custom- 
ary. 
cut (kut), v. ; pret. and pp. cut, formerly some- 
times cutted, ppr. cutting. [Early mod. E. also 
cutte (So. kit) ; < ME. cutten, kutten, also kitten, 
and rarely ketten (pret. cutte, kutte, kitte, cut, 
kit, pp. cut, also pret. kittede, pp. cutted, kitted), 
cut, a word of great frequency, first appearing 
about A. D. 1200, in pret. cutte, and taking the 
place as a more exact term of the more general 
words having this sense (carve, hew, slay, snitlte) ; 
of Celtic origin: cf. W. cwtau, Gael, cutaich, 
shorten, dock, curtail: W. cwta, Corn, cut, Gael. 
Ir. cutach, short, docked; W. cwt = Gael. Ir. 
cut, a tail, a bobtail; Gael, cut, Ir. cot, a piece, 
part.] I. trans. 1. To make, with an edged 
tool or instrument, an incision in j wound with 
something having a sharp edge ; incise : as, to 
cut one's finger. 
I think there is no nation under heaven 
That cut their enemies' throats with compliment, 
And such fine tricks, as we do. 
Beau, and Fl., Little French Lawyer, i. 2. 
2. To penetrate or cleave, as a sharp or edged 
instrument does. 
The pleasantest angling is to see the fish 
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream. 
Shak., Much Ado, iii. 1. 
Far on its rocky knoll descried, 
Saint Michael's chapel cuts the sky. 
M. Arnold, Stanzas composed at Carnac. 
No bird is safe that cuts the air 
From their rifle or their snare. 
Emerson, Monadnoc. 
3. To wound the sensibilities of ; affect deeply. 
The man was cut to the heart with these consolations. 
Add-on. 
4. To make incision in for the purpose of di- 
viding or separating into two or more parts; 
sever or divide with a sharp instrument : used 
with into (sometimes in) before the parts or di- 
visions, and sometimes with an intensive up : 
as, to cut a rope in two (that is, into two pieces 
or parts) ; to cut bread into slices ; to cut up an 
ox into portions suitable for the market. 
Thoghe see kutte hem in never so many Gobettes or 
parties, overthwart or end longes, everemore gee schulle 
fynden in the myddes the figure of the Holy Cros of cure 
Lord Jesu. MandemUe, Travels, p. 49. 
Hence 5. In card-playing, to divide or sepa- 
rate (a pack of cards) at random into two or 
more parts for the purpose of determining the 
deal, trumps, etc., or for the prevention of 
cheating in dealing, etc. 
We sure in vain the Cards condemn : 
Ourselves both cut and shuffled them. 
Prior, Alma, ii. 
6. To sever by the application of a sharp or 
edgedinstrument, such as an ax, a saw, a sickle, 
etc., in order to facilitate removal. Specifically - 
(a) To hew or saw duwn ; fell : as, to cut timber. 
1414 
Thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon. 
2 Chron. ii. 8. 
(b) To reap ; mow ; harvest : as, to cut grain or hay. 
The first wheat that I saw cut this yeare was at that 
postehouse. Corijat, Crudities, I. 141. 
Hence 7. To remove or separate entirely and 
effectually by or as by a cutting instrument ; 
sever completely. () To take away. 
Cut from a man his hope in Christ for hereafter, and 
then the epicure's counsel will seem good, Let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die. 
Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, I., Pref. to xi. 
(b) With ait-ay : to sever, detach, or clear away, for the 
purpose of disencumbering or relieving : as, to cut away 
wreckage on a ship, (c) With off: (1) To separate from the 
other parts ; remove by amputation or excision : as, to cut 
of a man's head, or one's finger. 
An Australian cutx ojfthe right thumb of a slain enemy, 
that the ghost may be unable to throw a spear. 
H. Spencer, Prin. of Sociol., 108. 
Hence (2) To extirpate or destroy ; make an end of. 
Jezebel cut ojftbe prophets of the Lord. 1 Ki. xviii. 4. 
Th' incurable cut off, the rest reform. 
B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, v. 3. 
(3) To interrupt ; stop ; bring to ati end : as, to cut off&\\ 
communication. 
This aqueduct could be of no service to Jerusalem in 
time of war, as the enemy would always cut off the com- 
munication. Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 43. 
The junction of the Hanoverians cut of, and that of the 
Saxons put off. Walpole, Letters, II. 22. 
(4) To bring to an end suddenly or by untimely means : 
as, cut off by pestilence. 
Gallant men, who are cut off by the sword, move rather 
our veneration than our pity. Steele, Tatler, No. 181. 
(5) To debar from access or intercourse, as by the inter- 
position of distance or insurmountable obstacles : as, cut 
off from one's country or friends ; cut off from all succor. 
The Abyssinians . . . were cut off from the rest of the 
world by seas and deserts almost inaccessible. 
Bruce, Source of the Nile, II. 3. 
(6) To intercept ; deprive of means of return, as by the re- 
moval of a bridge, or by the intervention of a barrier or an 
opposing force : as, the troops were cut offiram the ships. 
8. To intersect; cross: as, one line cuts another 
at right angles; the ecliptic cuts the equator. 
The Fosse cut the Watling Street at a place called High 
Cross in Leicestershire, the site of the Roman Venonw. 
C. Elton, Origins of Eng. Hist., p. 340. 
9. To castrate: as, to cut a horse. 10. To 
trim by clipping, shearing, paring, or pruning : 
as, to cut the hair or the nails. 
To kytte a vyne is thinges iij to attende. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 6. 
The Walls were well covered with Fruit Trees ; he had 
not cut his Peaches; when I askt him the reason, he told 
me it was his way not to cut them till after flowring, which 
he found by Experience to improve the Fruit. 
Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 187. 
Religion in their garments, and their hair 
Cut shorter than their eyebrows ! 
B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, Ind. 
11. To make or fashion by cutting. () To ex- 
cavate ; dig : as, to cut a drain or trench. 
A canal having been cut across it [a neck of land] by the 
British troops. The Century, XXIV. 587. 
(b) To form the parts of by cutting into shape : as, to cut 
a garment ; to cut one's coat according to one's cloth. 
A blue jacket cut and trimmed in what is known as 
" man-o'-war" style. The Century, XXIV. 587. 
(c) To shape or model by superficial cutting; sculpture or 
carve. 
Why should a man whose blood is warm within 
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster? 
Shak., M. of V., i. 1. 
There are four very stately pillers of white free-stone, 
most curiously cut with sundry faire workes. 
Coryat, Crudities, I. 33. 
I, tired out 
With cutting eights that day upon the pond. 
Tennyson, The Epic. 
(d) To polish by grinding, etc. ; finish or ornament by cut- 
ting facets on : as, to cut glass or precious stones. 
12. To abridge or shorten by omitting a part : 
as, to cut a speech or a play. 13. To lower; 
reduce ; diminish : as, to cut rates. 
It certainly cannot be that those who make these faster 
times are as a body physically stronger than the first ex- 
ponents of the art, for it is only during the present genera- 
tion that the bicycle has been brought into use, and yet 
we find that "records" are week by week being cut. 
Nineteenth Century, XXI. 618. 
14. To reduce the tone or intensity of (a color). 
It [nitric acid] is used for a few colors in calico printing, 
and sometimes to cut madder pinks, that is, to reduce the 
red to a softer shade. 
O'Neill, Dyeing and Calico Printing, p. 369. 
15. To dissolve or make miscible: as, to cut 
shellac with alcohol, or lampblack with vine- 
gar. 16. To sever connection orrelation with ; 
nave nothing to do with; give up; abandon; 
stay away from when one should attend : as, to 
cut acquaintance with a person ; to cut a con- 
nection; to cut a recitation. 
He swore that he would cut the service. Marryat. 
cut 
I cut the Algebra and Trigonometry papers dead my 
first year, and came out seventh. 
Bristed, English University, p. 51. 
The weather was bad, and I could not go over to Brook- 
lyn without too great fatigue, and so I cut that and some 
other calls I had intended to make. 
S. Bowles, in MiTriam, I. 340. 
17. To meet or pass deliberately without rec- 
ognition; avoid or turn away from intention- 
ally; affect not to be acquainted with: as, to 
cut an acquaintance. 
That he had cut me ever since my marriage, I had seen 
without surprise or resentment. 
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, xliv. 
18. In cricket, to strike and send off (a ball) in 
front of the batsman, and parallel to the wicket. 
19. To carry forward (a heavy object) with- 
out rolling, by moving the ends alternately in 
the required direction: used by laborers, me- 
chanics, etc., in relation to moving beams or 
the like To cut a caper or capers, to leap or dance 
in a frolicsome manner ; frisk about. 
In his ordinary gesture he discovers he can dance, 
though he does not cut capers. Steele, Spectator, No. 4. 
My bosom underwent a glorious glow, 
And my internal spirit cut a caper. 
Byron, Don Juan, x. 3. 
To cut a dash, to make a display. 
I knew that he thought he was cutting a dash, 
As his steed went thundering by. 
0. If. Holmes, Reflections- of a Proud Pedestrian. 
Lived on his means, cut no great dash, 
And paid his debts in honest cash. 
Lowell, Int. to Biglow Papers, 1st ser. 
To cut a feather (naut.), to move so fast as to make the 
water foam under the bow: said of a ship. To cut a 
figure, to make a striking appearance, or be conspicuous 
in any way, as in dress or manners, public position, in- 
fluence, etc. 
A tall gaunt creature . . . cutting a most ridiculous 
figure. Marryat, Snarleyyow, III. viii. 
To cut a joke, to make a joke ; crack a jest. 
The King [George IV.) was in good looks and good 
spirits, and after dinner cut his jokes with all the coarse 
merriment which is his characteristic. 
Greville, Memoirs, Dec. 18, 1821. 
And jokes will be cut in the House of Lords, 
And throats in the County Kerry. 
J'raed, Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine. 
To cut and carve, to hack at indiscriminately ; change 
or modify. 
Take away the Act which secures the use of the Liturgy 
as it is, and you set the clergy free to cut and carve it as 
they please. Contemporary Rev., L. 23. 
To cut down, (a) To fell ; cause to fall by lopping or 
hewing. 
Ye shall . . . cut doum their groves. Ex. xxxiv. 13. 
(6) To slay ; kill ; disable, as by the sword. 
Some of the soldiery were killed while sleeping, others 
were cut down almost without resistance. 
Irving, Granada, p. 31. 
(c) To surpass ; put to shame. 
So great is his natural eloquence that he cuts down the 
finest orator. Addison, Count Tariff. 
(d) To retrench ; curtail ; as, to cut down expenses. 
The Chancellor of Exchequer, who selected the moment 
for cutting down the estimates for our naval and military 
defences when all Europe is bristling with arms. 
Edinburgh Jtev., CLXV. 270. 
(e) Naut., to razee; reduce by cutting away a deck from, 
as a line-of-battle ship to convert it into a frigate, etc. (/) 
In racing slang : (1) To strike into the legs of a competing 
horse so as to injure him. (2) To take the lead decisively 
from an inferior animal that has previously been indulged 
with it. Krik's Guide. to cut in, in whale-fishing, to 
cut up in pieces suitable for tryuig. 
From the time a whale is discovered until the capture 
is made, and the animal cut in, the scene is one of labori- 
ous excitement. C. M. Scamman, Marine Mammals, p. 230. 
To cut It too fat, to overdo a thing. [Low or vulgar, 
U. S.] 
It's bad enough to be uncomfortable in your own 
bouse without knowing why ; but to have a philosopher 
of the Sennaar school show you why you are so, is cutting 
it rather too fat. G. W. Curtis, Potiphar Papers, p. 131. 
TO CUt Off With a Shilling, to disinherit by bequeath- 
ing a shilling: a practice adopted by a testator dissatis- 
fied with his heir, as a proof that the disinheritance was 
designed and not the result of neglect, and also from the 
notion that it was necessary to leave the heir at least a 
shilling to make a will valid. To cut one's eye-teeth, 
or to nave pne's eye-teeth CUt, t. l.e old enough to un- 
derstand things; be cunning or shrewd, and not easily 
imposed upon : because the eye-teeth are usually the last 
of the exposed teeth to appear. [Slang.) To CUt one's 
stick, to move off ; be off at once. [Slang.] 
Cut your stick, sir come, mizzle! be off with you! 
go! Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, II. 199. 
To cut OUt. () To remove as by cutting or carving. 
You know, sir, you gave them leave to cut out or omit 
whatever they found heavy or unnecessary to the plot. 
Sheridan, The Critic, ii. 1. 
(b) To shape or form by or as by cutting ; fashion ; adapt : 
as, to cut out a garment ; to cut out a pattern : he is not 
cut out for an author. 
As if she [Nature] haply bad sat down, 
And cut out Cloaths fur all tin- Town. 
Prior, Alma, i. 
A large forest cut out into walks. Addison. 
