Obs. An insect, esp. one with the division between thorax and abdomen deeply cut.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1653), 659. Wilde Hornets … live in the hollow trunks or cavities of trees, there keeping themselves close all the Winter long, as other Cut-wasts do. Ibid., 779. The Butter-fly, or any other Cut-waste.
So Cut-waisted ppl. a.
1577. Harrison, England, III. vi. (1878), II. 36. The cut wasted (for so I English the word Insecta) are the hornets, waspes, bees, and such like.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1608), 638. A Bee is a *cut-wasted living creature.
