Entry · catalog no. 1068
cut out
/ /
verb · Harlem, New York; nationwide ·
✓ Verified
1.
To leave; to depart a place.
“It's getting late, I'm about to cut out.”
Origin & Attribution
Defined in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary (1938) as "to leave, to depart," with the example "I cut out from the joint in early bright." Nearly a century on it is still ordinary Black speech — one of the jive-era words that never left the language it came from.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Harlem, New York; nationwide ·
Spoken by
$CUTOUTThe Record · cultural traction
▲ 26 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
+ Cite a sourceCab Calloway, Hepster's Dictionary: A Guide to the Language of Jive — dictionary · 1938
submitted
See also