Naut. [app. a specific use of CUTTER sb.1 Some think it refers to CUT v., comparing the early use of RUNNER for a small fast vessel used as a dispatch boat, etc.; others would refer it more especially to the build, whereby it is, in Johnson’s words, ‘a nimble boat that cuts the water.’ The conjecture that it is possibly a corruption of CATUR is inadmissible.]
1. A boat, belonging to a ship of war, shorter and in proportion broader than the barge or pinnace, fitted for rowing and sailing, and used for carrying light stores, passengers, etc.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 284. I have seen and heard six Times more Confusion, Noise, and Hurry in hoisting out one Cutter (or small Boat).
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. xiii. 276. The inconsiderable size of a Cutter belonging to a sixty gun ship, (being only an open boat about twenty-two feet in length).
1784. Cook’s 3rd Voy. (1790), VI. 2227. Two sailors … went off with a six-oared cutter.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 9. Cutters are used as despatch boats and for light work, such as answering signals, rowing guard, picking up a man overboard, or to assist in towing.
2. A small, single-masted vessel, clinker- or carvel-built, furnished with a straight running bowsprit, and rigged much like a sloop, carrying a fore-and-aft main-sail, gaff-top-sail, stay-foresail, and jib; a style of building and rigging now much used in yachts.
According to an old French engraving of a naval action in 1779, and Rigging & Seamanship 1794, vol. I. last plate, the cutters of that time were rigged like the half of an old schooner, with square topsails.
Revente cutter (formerly custom-house cutter): a cutter-built vessel employed by the customs authorities for the prevention of smuggling, etc.; in U.S. applied to all vessels employed in this service whether steamers or sailing vessels; hence revenue cutter service, etc.
1762. Capt. Everitt, in Naval Chron., XIII. 30. Let the Lurcher Cutter attend the Boats.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Cutter, a small vessel commonly navigated in the channel of England; it is furnished with one mast, and rigged as a sloop. Many of these vessels are used on an illicit trade, and others employed by the Government to seize them.
1799. Naval Chron., I. 441. The Hind Revenue Cutter.
1806. A. Duncan, Nelson, 14. The Rambler cutter was … engaged … with a French cutter.
1892. Whitaker’s Alm., 606/1. In the first-class division, Mr. John Jameson’s cutter, Iverna, built in 1890, headed the winning list.
3. transf. A small light sledge or sleigh for one or two persons. Canada and U.S.
1836. [Mrs. Traill], Backwoods of Canada, 207. The usual equipages for travelling are the double sleigh, light waggon, and cutter; the two former are drawn by two horses abreast, but the latter … has but one.
1857. B. Taylor, North. Trav., xv. 155. The sleighing was superb. How I longed for a dashing American cutter, with a span of fast horses.
1887. Cornh. Mag., March, 261. The dainty Canadian ‘cutter,’ with its gracefully curved, spider-legged runners.
4. Comb., as cutter-built, rigged, adjs.; cutter-brig, ‘a vessel with square sails, a fore-and-aft main-sail, and a jigger-mast with a smaller one’ (Smyth); formerly brig cutter; cutter-gig, a boat of a size between a cutter and a gig; cutter-yacht, a yacht built and rigged like a cutter.
[1799. Naval Chron., I. 255. They were met by a brig cutter.] Ibid., I. 261. The Perseverance [is] cutter-rigged. Ibid. (1803), X. 333. The squadron has sent in the … brig l’Aiguille … cutter built. Ibid. (1805), XIV. 340. Two large French Cutter Brigs ran alongside.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 101. In the Royal Navy, when cutter-built vessels are thus rigged, they are called Cutter Brigs.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 309. We passed the bishop’s smart little cutter-yacht.
Cutter, sb.3 Corruption or error for GUTTER.
1731. Bailey, Cutters, the little Streaks in the Beam of a Deer.
