Cutting

verbal subs. and ppl. adj. (trade).—1.  The process of underselling; synonymous with competition of the keenest kind.—See CUT, verb, sense 4.

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. I., p. 372. There is great competition in the trade, and much of what is called CUTTING, or one tradesman underselling another. Ibid., vol. II., p. 232. Those employers who seek to reduce the prices of a trade are known technologically as CUTTING employers, in contradistinction to the standard employers, or those who pay their workpeople, and sell their goods at the ordinary rates.

  1863.  Once a Week, vol. VIII., p. 552. At first sight it would seem that the poor men got a better article for less money than the rich and well-to-do classes; but a little inquiry into the method by which these CUTTING bakers ‘make things pleasant’ soon dissipate this seeming anomaly. Ibid., p. 179. If she is accustomed to frequent CUTTING SHOPS, where the stock is periodically thrown into a state of convulsions in its efforts to sell itself off, of course she expects to be done.

  2.  (colloquial).—Disowning or ignoring a person.—See CUT, verb, sense 2.

  1854.  MARTIN and AYTOUN, Bon Gaultier Ballads, ‘The Doleful Lay of the Honble. I. O. Uwins.’