cut-outs

Noun

cut-out (plural cut-outs)

1. A hole or space produced when something is removed by cutting.
   • a dress with cut-out sides
2. A piece cut out of something.
   • Unless a boy is a very good carpenter, and has great patience and plenty of time at his command, I cannot advise him to attempt making a built model,—at all events, not until he has formed several cut-outs first. One of these "cut-outs" will serve as a model or form from which he may frame his...1866, William H. G. Kingston, “How to Make a Boy's Boat”, in Edmund Routledge, editor, Routledge's Every Boy's Annual. An Entertaining Miscellany of Original Literature, London; New York, N.Y....
   1. A free-standing, rigid print (usually life-sized), often displayed for promotional purposes; a standee.
      • The sentry didn't answer. Taking a closer look at him I realised he wasn't a real sentry but a cut-out sentry, guarding not a real but a cut-out border.2011, Jug Suraiya, “A Career of Pissing People Off”, in JS & the Times of My Life: A Worm's Eye View of Indian Journalism, Chennai: Tranquebar Press, →ISBN
   2. A kind of cookie produced in a certain shape by use of a cookie cutter.
      • Use a 1½-inch (4 cm) cutter to remove the center of twelve cookies; the cookie centers need the same baking time. Bake all the cookies (including the center cut-outs) for 12 minutes, or until the bottoms are light golden brown.2014, Celine Steen, Tamasin Noyes, Vegan Finger Foods
3. An item of clothing, such as a dress or shoe, designed with portions cut away.
4. A trusted middleman or intermediary, especially in espionage.
   • A cut-out, or intermediary, forms the link between two agents or between an agent and the outside world. He may know very little about the organization and just carry messages, or he may be a liaison officer who is able to answer questions and take decisions; but the important thing is that he...1943 November, Special Operations Executive (UK), “Organization”, in How to be a Spy: The World War II SOE Training Manual (Secret History Files), Toronto, Ont.; Tonawanda, N.Y.: Dundurn Press...

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