Also 5 unkyt. [UN-1 8 b, 8 c.]
1. Not cut, gashed, or wounded with a sharp-edged instrument; not having received a cut.
1426. Audelay, Poems (Percy Soc.), 12. Who mai kepe hym unkyt fro a kene knyfe, Ȝif he boldly that blad touche in his tene.
1615. Work for Cutlers, 4. Ile make a Capon of you before I haue done with you, you shall nere come home vncut Ile warrant you.
1623. Massinger & Field, Bondman, IV. ii. Gracculo. [We’ll] not leave One house unfired. Cimbrio. Or throat uncut of those we have in our power.
1834. M. Scott, Cruise Midge (1863), 236. An open book, the leaves kept down … by a most enticing uncut pine apple.
1840. Eliza Cook, To Favourite Pony, v. Thy knees uncut, my bones unshatter’d.
b. Without being operated on.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. V., 1 b. Shee could not be delivered of hym uncut.
2. That has not been subjected to cutting; not severed by cutting; not mown, lopped, etc.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John, xix. 110. Therfore the souldiers thought good that it should be kept whole unkut.
1583. Greene, Mamillia, Wks. (Grosart), II. 49. The grasse looketh better being vncut, then that which withereth with the sieth.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, III. i. 1. An old wood, stands vncut of long yeares space.
1639. Horn & Rob., Gate Lang. Unl., lxi. § 641. Heathenish Priests in their Temples & uncut groves, dedicated presents.
1745. Transl. & Paraphr. Sc. Ch., XXIV. i. Say, grows the Rush without the Mire?… Green and Uncut, it quickly fades.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., I. 27. Clad in bark,… with his hair and nails uncut.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 323. Keep these branches uncut till you arrive at the season of grafting.
1885. Times (weekly ed.), 25 Sept., 13/4. A few of the fields being still uncut.
b. With down or up.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 27. He that hangth him selfe a sondaie Shall hang still vncut downe a mondaie for mee.
1607. Beaum. & Fl., Woman Hater, I. ii. Great, cumbersom, un-cut-up pies … to make a shew with.
3. Not fashioned or shaped by cutting.
Uncut diamond, velvet, etc.: cf. CUT ppl. a.
1596. Acc. Bk. W. Wray, in Antiquary, XXXII. 281. j li. cut and uncut fringe, iiij s.
1605. Drayton, Poems, 69 b. Which being now but in so meane a bed, Is like an vncut diamond in lead.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 22 Oct. 1644. With a terrace at each side having rustic uncut balustrades.
1770. Mme. D’Arblay, Early Diary (1889), I. 121. She fixed upon a suite of dark blue, uncut velvet.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 695/2. Until 1476 … the diamond was worn uncut.
1902. Marshall, Metal Tools, 41. Most flat files are provided with one plain, uncut edge.
4. Of books: Not having the leaves cut open.
1828. Macaulay, Misc. Writ. (1860), I. 273. The new novel lies uncut.
1850. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), II. 125. The new ‘Copperfield’ … to this hour remains uncut.
1893. Liddon, etc., Life Pusey, I. xii. 276. The copy of the published sermon which was sent him ‘from the author’ is still uncut.
b. Not having the margins cut down.
1809. Dibdin, Bibliomania, 60. Uncut Copies,… books of which the edges have never been sheared by the binder’s tools. Ibid., 61. An uncut first Shakspeare, as well as an uncut first Homer.
1863. Hotten, Hand-bk. Topogr., 95/1. Fine uncut copy (sells at £4 5s.) 355.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., Uncut edges, books not cut down, but not necessarily unopened.
c. transf. Given to collecting ‘uncut’ books.
1862. Burton, Bk. Hunter (1882), 19. He was not a black letter man or a tall copyist or an uncut man.
5. Not curtailed or shortened.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 7 Dec., 3/2. The uncut ‘first night’ is apt to cause great injustice to the performers.
6. Uncircumcised.
1922. L. Andrews, Hawaiian Dict., 575. Puhi, n. An uncut foreskin.
