different between cut vs cast

English

Etymology

From Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten, ketten (“to cut”) (compare Scots kut, kit (“to cut”)), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse kytja, kutta, from Proto-Germanic *kutjan?, *kuttan? (“to cut”), of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *kwetw? (“meat, flesh”) (compare Old Norse kvett (“meat”)). Akin to Middle Swedish kotta (“to cut or carve with a knife”) (compare dialectal Swedish kåta, kuta (“to cut or chip with a knife”), Swedish kuta, kytti (“a knife”)), Norwegian kutte (“to cut”), Icelandic kuta (“to cut with a knife”), Old Norse kuti (“small knife”), Norwegian kyttel, kytel, kjutul (“pointed slip of wood used to strip bark”).

Displaced native Middle English snithen (from Old English sn?þan; compare German schneiden), which still survives in some dialects as snithe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Verb

cut (third-person singular simple present cuts, present participle cutting, simple past and past participle cut)

1. (transitive) To incise, to cut into the surface of something.
   1. To perform an incision on, for example with a knife.
   2. To divide with a knife, scissors, or another sharp instrument.
   3. To form or shape by cutting.
   4. (slang) To wound with a knife.
      • 1990, Stephen Dobyns, The house on Alexandrine

        We don't want your money no more. We just going to cut you.

   5. (intransitive) To engage in self-harm by making cuts in one's own skin.

      The patient said she had been cutting since the age of thirteen.

   6. To deliver a stroke with a whip or like instrument to.

      • “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

   7. To wound or hurt deeply the sensibilities of; to pierce.
      • 1829, Elijah Hoole, Personal Narrative of a Mission to the South of India, from 1820 to 1828

        she feared she should laugh to hear an European preach in Tamul , but on the contrary , was cut to the heart by what she heard

   8. To castrate or geld.

   9. To interfere, as a horse; to strike one foot against the opposite foot or ankle in using the legs.
2. (intransitive) To admit of incision or severance; to yield to a cutting instrument.
   • 1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, The Deacon's Masterpiece, in Chapter XI:

     The panels of white-wood that cuts like cheese, / But lasts like iron for things like these;

3. (transitive, social) To separate, remove, reject or reduce.
   1. To separate or omit, in a situation where one was previously associated.

   2. To abridge or shorten a work; to remove a portion of a recording during editing.
   3. To reduce, especially intentionally.
   4. To absent oneself from (a class, an appointment, etc.).
      • 1833, Thomas Hamilton, Men and Manners in America

        An English tradesman is always solicitous to cut the shop whenever he can do so with impunity.

   5. To ignore as a social snub.
      • 1903, Samuel Barber, The Way of All Flesh, ch 73:

        At first it had been very painful to him to meet any of his old friends, [...] but this soon passed; either they cut him, or he cut them; it was not nice being cut for the first time or two, but after that, it became rather pleasant than not [...] The ordeal is a painful one, but if a man's moral and intellectual constitution are naturally sound, there is nothing which will give him so much strength of character as having been well cut.

4. (intransitive, film) To make an abrupt transition from one scene or image to another.

   The camera then cut to the woman on the front row who was clearly overcome and crying tears of joy.

5. (transitive, film) To edit a film by selecting takes from original footage.
6. (transitive, computing) To remove (text, a picture, etc.) and place in memory in order to paste at a later time.

7. (intransitive) To enter a queue in the wrong place.

8. (intransitive) To intersect or cross in such a way as to divide in half or nearly so.
9. (transitive, cricket) To make the ball spin sideways by running one's fingers down the side of the ball while bowling it. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
10. (transitive, cricket) To deflect (a bowled ball) to the off, with a chopping movement of the bat.
11. (intransitive) To change direction suddenly.

12. (transitive, intransitive) To divide a pack of playing cards into two.

13. (transitive, slang) To write.

14. (transitive, slang) To dilute or adulterate something, especially a recreational drug.

15. (transitive) To exhibit (a quality).
16. (transitive) To stop, disengage, or cease.

    Synonym: cut out

17. (sports) To drive (a ball) to one side, as by (in billiards or croquet) hitting it fine with another ball, or (in tennis) striking it with the racket inclined.
18. (bodybuilding) To lose body mass after bulking, aiming to keep the additional muscle but lose the fat.
19. To perform (a dancing movement etc.).

    to cut a caper

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:cut

Troponyms

• chop, hack, slice, trim

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• copy
• paste

Adjective

cut (comparative more cut, superlative most cut)

1. (participial adjective) Having been cut.
2. Reduced.

3. (of a gem) Carved into a shape; not raw.
4. (Can we clean up⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (cricket, of a shot) Played with a horizontal bat to hit the ball backward of point.
5. (bodybuilding) Having muscular definition in which individual groups of muscle fibers stand out among larger muscles.
   • 1988, Steve Holman, "Christian Conquers Columbus", Ironman 47 (6): 28-34.

     Or how 'bout Shane DiMora? Could he possibly get rip-roaring cut this time around?

   • 2010, Bill Geiger, "6-pack Abs in 9 Weeks", Reps! 17:106

     That's the premise of the overload principle, and it must be applied, even to ab training, if you're going to develop a cut, ripped midsection.

6. (informal) Circumcised or having been the subject of female genital mutilation.
7. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Emotionally hurt.
8. (slang, New Zealand, formerly Britain) Intoxicated as a result of drugs or alcohol.

Synonyms

• (intoxicated): See Thesaurus:drunk

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

cut (countable and uncountable, plural cuts)

1. The act of cutting.

2. The result of cutting.

3. An opening resulting from cutting; an incision or wound.

4. A notch, passage, or channel made by cutting or digging; a furrow; a groove.

   • which great cut or ditch Sesostris […] purposed to have made a great deale wider and deeper.

   1. An artificial navigation as distinguished from a navigable river
5. A share or portion.

6. (cricket) A batsman's shot played with a swinging motion of the bat, to hit the ball backward of point.
7. (cricket) Sideways movement of the ball through the air caused by a fast bowler imparting spin to the ball.
8. (sports) In lawn tennis, etc., a slanting stroke causing the ball to spin and bound irregularly; also, the spin thus given to the ball.
9. (golf) In a strokeplay competition, the early elimination of those players who have not then attained a preannounced score, so that the rest of the competition is less pressed for time and more entertaining for spectators.
10. (theater) A passage omitted or to be omitted from a play.

11. (film) A particular version or edit of a film.
12. (card games) The act or right of dividing a deck of playing cards.

13. (card games) The card obtained by dividing the pack.
14. The manner or style a garment etc. is fashioned in.
15. A slab, especially of meat.

16. (fencing) An attack made with a chopping motion of the blade, landing with its edge or point.
17. A deliberate snub, typically a refusal to return a bow or other acknowledgement of acquaintance.
    • 1819, Washington Irving, (Rip Van Winkle):

      Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed.

18. An unkind act; a cruelty.
19. A definable part, such as an individual song, of a recording, particularly of commercial records, audio tapes, CDs, etc.

20. (archaeology) A truncation, a context that represents a moment in time when other archaeological deposits were removed for the creation of some feature such as a ditch or pit.
21. A haircut.
22. (graph theory) The partition of a graph’s vertices into two subgroups.
23. (rail transport) A string of railway cars coupled together, shorter than a train.
24. An engraved block or plate; the impression from such an engraving.

25. (obsolete) A common workhorse; a gelding.
26. (slang, dated) The failure of a college officer or student to be present at any appointed exercise.
27. A skein of yarn.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

28. (slang, uncountable) That which is used to dilute or adulterate a recreational drug.

29. (fashion) A notch shaved into an eyebrow.
30. (bodybuilding) A time period when one tries to lose fat while retaining muscle mass.
31. (slang) A hidden or secure place.

Derived terms

Translations

Interjection

cut!

1. (film and television) An instruction to cease recording.

   Antonym: action

Anagrams

• TUC, UCT, UTC

Irish

Noun

cut m (genitive singular cuit, nominative plural cuit)

1. Cois Fharraige form of cat (“cat”)

Declension

Mutation

Further reading

• "cut" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Kiput

Etymology

From Proto-North Sarawak *likud, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *likud.

Noun

cut

1. back (the rear of body)

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?sut/

Verb

cut

1. supine of cu?

Welsh

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /k??t/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /k?t/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle English [Term?], from Old Northern French cot, cote (“hut, cottage”).

Noun

cut m (plural cutiau)

1. hut, shed; cottage, hovel; pen, coop; cage

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Noun

cut m (plural cutiaid)

1. Alternative form of cud (“kite”)

Mutation

References

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “cut”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

English

Etymology

From Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta (“to throw, cast, overturn”), from Proto-Germanic *kast?n? (“to throw, cast”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots cast (“to cast, throw”), Danish kaste (“to throw”), Swedish kasta (“to throw, cast, fling, toss, discard”), Icelandic kasta (“to pitch, toss”). In the sense of "flinging", displaced native warp.

The senses relating to broadcasting are based on that same term; compare -cast.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation): enPR: käst, IPA^(key): /k??st/
• (Northern England): enPR: k?st, IPA^(key): /kast/
• (General American): enPR: k?st, IPA^(key): /kæst/
• Rhymes: -??st, -æst
• Homophones: caste, karst

Verb

cast (third-person singular simple present casts, present participle casting, simple past and past participle cast or (nonstandard) casted)

1. (physical) To move, or be moved, away.
   1. (now somewhat literary) To throw. [from 13^thc.]
      • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

        Why then a Ladder quaintly made of Cords / To cast vp, with a paire of anchoring hookes, / Would serue to scale another Hero's towre […].

      • 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, p.262:

        The more, an' please your honour, the pity, said the Corporal; in uttering which, he cast his spade into the wheelbarrow […].

   2. To throw forward (a fishing line, net etc.) into the sea. [from 14^thc.]
      • 1526, Bible, tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 4:

        As Jesus walked by the see off Galile, he sawe two brethren: Simon which was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, castynge a neet into the see (for they were fisshers) […].

   3. To throw down or aside. [from 15^thc.]
      • 1611, Bible, Authorized Version, Matthew VI.30:

        it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

      • 1930, "Sidar the Madman", Time, 19 Dec.:

        Near Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, Madman, co-pilot and plane were caught in a storm, cast into the Caribbean, drowned.

      • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, 2010, p.316:

        Her bow is not to her liking. In a temper, she casts it on the grass.

   4. (of an animal) To throw off (the skin) as a process of growth; to shed the hair or fur of the coat. [from 15^thc.]
   5. To cause (a horse or other large animal) to lie down with its legs underneath it.
   6. (obsolete except in set phrases) To remove, take off (clothes). [from 14^thc.]
      • 1822, "Life of Donald McBane", Blackwood's Magazine, vol.12, p.745:

        when the serjeant saw me, he cast his coat and put it on me, and they carried me on their shoulders to a village where the wounded were and our surgeons […].

      • 2002, Jess Cartner-Morley, "How to Wear Clothes", The Guardian, 2 March:

        You know the saying, "Ne'er cast a clout till May is out"? Well, personally, I'm bored of my winter clothes by March.

   7. (nautical) To heave the lead and line in order to ascertain the depth of water.
   8. (obsolete) To vomit.

      • These verses […] make me ready to cast.

   9. (archaic) To throw up, as a mound, or rampart.

      • Thine enemies shall cast a trench [bank] about thee.
   10. (archaic) To throw out or emit; to exhale.
       • 1695 (first published), 1726 (final dated of publication) John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies

         This […] casts a sulphurous smell.

   • 1849, Philip Henry Gosse, Natural History

     This horned bird, as it casts a strong smell, so it hath a foul look, much exceeding the European Raven in bigness

2. To direct (one's eyes, gaze etc.). [from 13^thc.]
   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3:

     To whom do Lyons cast their gentle Lookes? Not to the Beast, that would vsurpe their Den.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, I.11:

     She then yawned again, threw aside her book, and cast her eyes round the room in quest of some amusement […].
3. (dated) To add up (a column of figures, accounts etc.); cross-cast refers to adding up a row of figures. [from 14^thc.]
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2:

     The Clearke of Chartam: hee can write and / reade, and cast accompt.

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     I cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on shore three hundred and sixty-five days.

4. (social) To predict, to decide, to plan.
   1. (astrology) To calculate the astrological value of (a horoscope, birth etc.). [from 14^thc.]
      • , vol.1, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.309:

        he is […] a perfect astrologer, that can cast the rise and fall of others, and mark their errant motions to his own use.

      • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, 2012, p.332:

        John Gadbury confessed that Mrs Cellier, ‘the Popish Midwife’, had asked him to cast the King's nativity, although the astrology claimed to have refused to do so.

      • 1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p.1197:

        He did the washing up and stayed behind to watch the dinner cook while she hopped off with a friend to have her horoscope cast by another friend.

   2. (obsolete) To plan, intend. [14^th-19^thc.]
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:

        I wrapt my selfe in Palmers weed, / And cast to seeke him forth through daunger and great dreed.

      • 1685, William Temple, "Upon the Gardens of Epicurus

        The cloister […] had, I doubt not, been cast for [an orange-house].

   3. (transitive) To assign (a role in a play or performance). [from 18^thc.]

   4. (transitive) To assign a role in a play or performance to (an actor).

   5. To consider; to turn or revolve in the mind; to plan.

      • She […] cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

   6. (archaic) To impose; to bestow; to rest.
      • Cast thy burden upon the Lord.

   7. (archaic) To defeat in a lawsuit; to decide against; to convict.
      • 1822, John Galt, The Provost

        She was cast to be hanged.

      • 1667, Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety

        Were the case referred to any competent judge, […] they would inevitably be cast.

   8. To turn (the balance or scale); to overbalance; hence, to make preponderate; to decide.
      • 24 July, 1659, Robert South, Interest Deposed, and Truth Restored

        How much interest casts the balance in cases dubious!

5. To perform, bring forth (a magical spell or enchantment).
6. To throw (light etc.) on or upon something, or in a given direction.
   • 1950, "A Global View", Time, 24 April:

     The threat of Russian barbarism sweeping over the free world will cast its ominous shadow over us for many, many years.

   • 1960, Lawrence Durrell, Clea:

     A sudden thought cast a gloom over his countenance.

7. (archaic) To give birth to (a child) prematurely; to miscarry. [from 15^thc.]
   • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.98:

     being with childe, they may without feare of accusation, spoyle and cast [transl. avorter] their children, with certaine medicaments, which they have only for that purpose.

   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20:

     The abortion of a woman they describe by an horse kicking a wolf; because a mare will cast her foal if she tread in the track of that animal.

9. To shape (molten metal etc.) by pouring into a mould; to make (an object) in such a way. [from 15^thc.]
   • 1923, "Rodin's Death", Time, 24 March:

     One copy of the magnificent caveman, The Thinker, of which Rodin cast several examples in bronze, is seated now in front of the Detroit Museum of Art, where it was placed last autumn.

   1. (printing, dated) To stereotype or electrotype.
10. To twist or warp (of fabric, timber etc.). [from 16^thc.]
    • c. 1680, Joseph Moxon, The Art of Joinery

      Stuff is said to cast or warp when […] it alters its flatness or straightness.

11. (nautical) To bring the bows of a sailing ship on to the required tack just as the anchor is weighed by use of the headsail; to bring (a ship) round. [from 18^thc.]
12. To deposit (a ballot or voting paper); to formally register (one's vote). [from 19^thc.]
13. (computing) To change a variable type from, for example, integer to real, or integer to text. [from 20^thc.]

14. (hunting) Of dogs, hunters: to spread out and search for a scent. [from 18^thc.]
    • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, 2005, p.50:

      He clambered on to an apron of rock that held its area out to the sun and began to cast across it. The direction of the wind changed and the scent touched him again.

15. (medicine) To set (a bone etc.) in a cast.

    (Can we add an example for this sense?)

16. (Wicca) To open a circle in order to begin a spell or meeting of witches.
17. (media) To broadcast.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

cast (plural casts)

1. An act of throwing.
2. (fishing) An instance of throwing out a fishing line.
3. Something which has been thrown, dispersed etc.

   • a cast of scatter'd dust

4. A small mass of earth "thrown off" or excreted by a worm.

5. The collective group of actors performing a play or production together. Contrasted with crew.

   He’s in the cast of Oliver.

   The cast was praised for a fine performance.

6. The casting procedure.

   The men got into position for the cast, two at the ladle, two with long rods, all with heavy clothing.

7. An object made in a mould.

   The cast would need a great deal of machining to become a recognizable finished part.

8. A supportive and immobilising device used to help mend broken bones.

   The doctor put a cast on the boy’s broken arm.

9. The mould used to make cast objects.

   A plaster cast was made from his face.

10. (hawking) The number of hawks (or occasionally other birds) cast off at one time; a pair.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

      As when a cast of Faulcons make their flight / An an Herneshaw, that lyes aloft on wing […].

11. A squint.
    • 1847, John Churchill, A manual of the principles and practice of ophthalmic medicine and surgery, p. 389, paragraph 1968:

      The image of the affected eye is clearer and in consequence the diplopy more striking the less the cast of the eye; hence the double vision will be noticed by the patient before the misdirection of the eye attracts the attention of those about him.

    • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 7:

      Arriving in Brittany, the Woodville exiles found a sallow young man, with dark hair curled in the shoulder-length fashion of the time and a penchant for expensively dyed black clothes, whose steady gaze was made more disconcerting by a cast in his left eye – such that while one eye looked at you, the other searched for you.

12. Visual appearance.

    Her features had a delicate cast to them.
13. The form of one's thoughts, mind etc.

    a cast of mind, a mental tendency.

    • 1894, Wilson Lloyd Bevan, Sir William Petty : A Study in English Economic Literature, p. 40:

      The cast of mind which prompted the plan was permanent, and in it are to be found both the strength and the weakness of Petty's character.

    • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 330:

      I have read all her articles and come to admire both her elegant turn of phrase and the noble cast of mind which inspires it; but never, I confess, did I look to see beauty and wit so perfectly united.

14. An animal, especially a horse, that is unable to rise without assistance.
15. Animal and insect remains which have been regurgitated by a bird.
16. A group of crabs.
17. A broadcast.

Derived terms

• castless
• plaster cast

Translations

Further reading

• cast at OneLook Dictionary Search
• cast in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• ACTs, ATCs, ATSC, Acts, CATs, CTAs, Cats, STCA, TACS, TCAS, TCAs, TSCA, acts, cats, scat

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin castus, possibly borrowed or semi-learned.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?kast/

Adjective

cast (feminine casta, masculine plural casts or castos, feminine plural castes)

1. chaste

Related terms

• castedat

Further reading

• “cast” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [k??st]
• Hyphenation: cast

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English cast.

Noun

cast m (plural casts, diminutive castje n)

1. cast (people performing a movie or play)

Synonyms

• rolbezetting
• rolverdeling

Related terms

• casten

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

cast

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of casten
2. imperative of casten

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English cast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kast/
• Hyphenation: càst

Noun

cast m (invariable)

1. cast (group of actors performing together)

Manx

Adjective

cast

1. contorted, curly, curved
2. complex, intricate, many-sided
3. ticklish

Mutation

Derived terms

• castid
• castys
• neuchast
• yl-chast

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin castus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kast/

Adjective

cast m or n (feminine singular cast?, masculine plural ca?ti, feminine and neuter plural caste)

1. chaste, clean, pure

Declension

Synonyms

• pur

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kast/, [?kast?]

Noun

cast m (plural casts)

1. cast (group of actors)