From Middle English cutter, cuttere, kutter.

• (America) IPA: /ˈkʌtɚ/
• (RP) IPA: /ˈkʌtə/

cutter (plural cutters)

1. A person or device that cuts (in various senses).

   a stone cutter; a die cutter

   In some CNC programs, the diameter of the cutter (such as an end mill) is handled by cutter compensation codes.

   • 1982, The Movies, page 288:

     The intervening years, however, were spent as a cutter. He was, indeed, one of the best film editors in the business, winning an Academy Award for Body and Soul (1947).

   • 1988, Jorge Amado, Home is the Sailor, page 55:

     Chico Pacheco kept repeating the phrase between clenched teeth, lamenting the wasted days of his youth; he had been a notorious cutter of classes.

2. (nautical) A single-masted, fore-and-aft rigged, sailing vessel with at least two headsails, and a mast set further aft than that of a sloop.
3. A foretooth; an incisor.
   • 1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], →OCLC ↗:

     the Cutters and Eye-teeth have usually but one Root

4. A heavy-duty motor boat for official use.

   a coastguard cutter.

5. (nautical) A ship's boat, used for transport ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore.
6. (cricket) A ball that moves sideways in the air, or off the pitch, because it has been cut.
7. (baseball) A cut fastball.
8. (slang) A ten-pence piece. So named because it is the coin most often sharpened by prison inmates to use as a weapon.
9. (informal) A person who practices self-injury by making cuts in the flesh.
10. (medicine, colloquial, slang, humorous or pejorative) A surgeon.

    Synonyms: slasher

11. An animal yielding inferior meat, with little or no external fat and marbling.

    Coordinate terms: canner, darkcutter

12. (obsolete) An officer in the exchequer who notes by cutting on the tallies the sums paid.
13. (obsolete) A ruffian; a bravo; a destroyer.
    • Martin Parker, A True Tale of Robin Hood

      So being outlaw'd (as 'tis told), / He with a crew went forth / Of lusty cutters, bold and strong, / And robbed in the north.

    • 1633, A Match at Midnight (disputed authorship)

      He's out of cash, and thou know'st by cutter's law, / We are bound to relieve one another.

14. (obsolete) A kind of soft yellow brick, easily cut, and used for facework.
15. A light sleigh drawn by one horse.
16. (television) A flag or similar instrument for blocking light.
    • 2012, John Jackman, Lighting for Digital Video and Television, page 86:

      Flags and other cutters allow the DP or gaffer to throw large controlled shadows on parts of the scene.

17. (MLE) A knife.
18. (Maine) An active child.

    Synonyms: splash, splasher, jooker, nank, shank, bassy, rambo, pokey, chete, ying

19. (intactivism, derogatory) A supporter of infant circumcision or female genital mutilation; pro-circumcisionist.

• French: coupeur, coupeuse
• German: Schneider, Schneiderin, Abschneider, Abschneiderin
• Portuguese: cortador
• Russian: ре́зчик
• Spanish: cortador

• German: Abschneider
• Italian: taglierino
• Portuguese: cortador
• Russian: резе́ц
• Spanish: cortador (manual), cortadora (machine)

• French: cotre
• German: Kutter
• Italian: cutter, veliero
• Portuguese: cúter
• Russian: ку́ттер
• Spanish: cúter

• Russian: ка́тер

• French: chaloupe
• German: Beiboot
• Italian: pilotina
• Russian: ка́тер

• Spanish: trineo

1. Surname.