Cut and run

Cut and run or cut-and-run is an idiomatic verb phrase meaning to "make off promptly" or to "hurry off". The phrase was in use by the 1700s to describe an act allowing a ship to make sail quickly in an urgent situation, by cutting free an anchor. Though initially referring to a literal act, the phrase was used figuratively by the mid-1800s in both the United States and England. The phrase is used pejoratively in political language, implying a panicked and cowardly retreat, and it has been used by politicians as a criticism of calls to withdraw troops from various armed conflicts, becoming particularly associated with the Iraq War and with the diction of the United States Republican Party. It has also been used in other contexts, such as in World War II military slang and to refer to a container shipping practice.

For other uses, see Cut and run (disambiguation).

Origin

The phrase "to cut and run" was in use by the early 1700s, and Oxford English Dictionary cited the earliest printed usage of the phrase to The Boston News-Letter in 1704.[1]

It was defined by Englishman David Steel in 1794 as "to cut the cable and make sail instantly, without waiting to weigh anchor";[2] late 19th century nautical dictionaries provide the same definition.[3][4] Steel further described the practice as "quick but very expensive" but sometimes necessary in urgent or emergency situations, such as when the anchor is hooked on rocks and cannot be retrieved, in bad weather, when the anchor is on lee shore and the ship is in danger of embayment, or when one must quickly escape or pursue an enemy.[5] This practice was long in use by then, as it was described in 1623 by Henry Mainwaring in The Seaman's Dictionary: "Cut the cable in the hawse; that is most commonly used when we ride in some storm and desire to set sail, but cannot stay the weighing of the anchor for fear of driving too much to leeward, or the like."[6] Instead of cutting the anchor by axe at the hawsehole, Steel offered an alternate method of slipping the anchor cable if time permitted, a method he felt wiser than cutting as it potentially prevented loss of anchor and cable.[5]

An alternative origin was given by Peter Kemp in 1976 and Richard Mayne in 2000 in reference to cutting a painter rope to release a moored ship or, on square rig ships, cutting ropeyarns holding sails stopped to the yards to let them fall unfurled.[7] Mayne felt this origin more plausible than a practice of cutting an anchor cable, given that anchors were expensive.[8]

Figurative usage

Though "cut and run" initially referred to a literal act, it later came to be used figuratively. This usage was noted in The Sailor's Word-Book (1867) with the definition "to move off quickly; to quit occupation; to be gone".[3] Oxford English Dictionary defines the figurative, colloquial usage as "to make off promptly" or to "hurry off".[1] This usage initially conveyed a swift—though not necessarily panicked or disorganized—departure, and it appears in this sense in White-Jacket (1850) by American author Herman Melville, in Great Expectations (1861) by English author Charles Dickens, and in an 1863 personal letter by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.[1][9]

In 2003, Paul Dickson defined the phrase in American military slang during World War II as describing an "operation consisting of a sudden attack followed by an immediate withdrawal, before a counterattack can be mounted".[10] Admiral Sir James Somerville used the phrase in this sense in summarizing the March 1942 operations of the Eastern Fleet for Hutchinson's Pictorial History of the War (1945).[11]

The phrase is also used in container shipping to refer to a practice where a vessel will leave at its prescribed departure time whether or not planned operations are finished; the operations are most often loading, so the vessel will leave behind cargo, but it may also refer to unloading. A vessel will cut and run for a variety of reasons, such as: to keep a schedule after delays and arrive at the next port on time, the berthing window ended, priority is being given to another vessel, or no stevedores are booked.[12][13]

In politics

In May 2004, William Safire in The New York Times noted that the phrase, when used in reference to politics and war, lost its "lighthearted sense" and came to become a pejorative implying panic and "cowardice, going beyond an honorable surrender" and is "said in derogation of a policy to be opposed with the utmost repugnance".[9] Dana Milbank characterized the phrase as a slogan used by members of United States Republican Party,[14][15] and in December 2015, Robert Entman identified the phrase as one of numerous memes or slogans that "trigger a series of instant, clear mental associations" lending to the "communicative success" of the Republican Party.[16] Linguist George Lakoff stated that the phrase is an example of the Republican Party's skill at "distilling an issue to a simple phrase" and analyzed the phrase as one that "presupposes that the opposite is to stand and fight".[17] In comments discussing the Iraq War, Leon Panetta and Evan Bayh positioned "stay the course" as the direct opposite.[18][19]

In the United States, the phrase saw usage by politicians, both in the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, as a criticism of calls to withdraw from armed conflicts including the Lebanese Civil War,[20][21] Vietnam War,[22] Somali Civil War,[9] and Iraq War,[23][24] with which it became particularly associated.[14][25][26] Safire described the phrase as becoming "as highly charged as the war in Iraq" and characterized opposition to the war difficult due to George W. Bush's use of the phrase in April 2004.[18] It was also used in similarly in Australia in reference to the Iraq War[27] and the War in Afghanistan[28] and in the United Kingdom in reference to the Iraq War.[29]

The phrase was also used during the 2016 Republican presidential debates by Jeb Bush to describe Marco Rubio in reference to the Gang of Eight and immigration reform.[30] Variations on the phrase were used by Ken Mehlman, then Chairperson of the United States Republican National Committee, to describe the Democratic Party's call to withdraw troops from the Iraq War: "Some are saying we need to cut and run, others are saying we need to cut and jog, and still others are saying we need to cut and walk."[31]

See also
Look up cut and run in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Notes and references

Footnotes
  1. "cut, v." Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1989. (subscription required)
  2. Steel 2011, p. 136.
  3. Smyth, W. H.; Belcher, E. (1867). The sailor's word-book: An alphabetical digest of nautical terms, including some more especially military and scientific... as well as archaisms of early voyagers, etc. London: Blackie and Son. pp. 220.
  4. A naval encyclopædia: comprising a dictionary of nautical words and phrases; biographical notices, and records of naval officers; special articles of naval art and science. Philadelphia: LR Hamersly & Co. 1881. p. 190. Retrieved September 1, 2021. at Internet Archive
  5. Steel 2011, pp. 70–71.
  6. Mainwaring, Mainwaring & Perrin 2019, p. 136.
  7. Kemp 1994, p. 221.
  8. Mayne, Richard (2000). The Language of Sailing. Chicago, Ill.: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 81–82. ISBN 1-57958-278-8. OCLC 45400808.
  9. Safire, William (May 2, 2004). "The Way We Live Now: 5-2-04: On Language; Cut and Run". The New York Times. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  10. Dickson 2003, p. 146.
  11. Somerville, James (1945). Hutchinson, Walter (ed.). "Operations of the Eastern Fleet". Hutchinson's Pictorial History of the War. Vol. 25, no. 3. pp. 53–54. We anticipated a cut-and-run operation [...] We rather expected the Japanese aircraft would attack at dawn, and that the Japanese force would then make an immediate get-away to the eastward, in order to avoid attack by the British land-based air in Ceylon.
  12. Mikael Lind; et al. (January 31, 2020). "Ships and Port Idle Time: Who are the Culprits?" (PDF). Sea Traffic Management. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  13. "Glossary for SAP Transportation Management, Network and Operations for Container Shipping Liners for SAP S/4HANA" (PDF). SAP. January 31, 2020. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  14. Milbank, Dana (June 21, 2006). "It's Time to Cut and Run From 'Cut and Run'". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  15. Pesca, Mike; Milbank, Dana (June 23, 2006). "Cut and Run". On the Media. WNYC. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  16. Entman, Robert (December 3, 2015). "Framing and party competition: How Democrats enabled the GOP's move to the uncompromising right" (PDF). Issues in Governance Studies. Brookings Institution (70). Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  17. Williams, Joseph (June 21, 2006). "GOP wants 'cut and run' label to stick". The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 11, 2016 – via Boston.com. (subscription required)
  18. Safire 2008, pp. 162–163.
  19. Bayh, Evan (April 3, 2006). "Transcript: Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.)" (Interview). Interviewed by Chris Cillizza. The Washington Post. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  20. "Interview: Caspar Weinberger". Frontline. PBS. September 2001. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  21. Kilpatrick, James (October 27, 1983). "Every choice a bad choice". The Daily Register. The alternative, in the short and ugly phrase, is to cut and run — to withdraw from the multinational peacekeeping force and to bring the Marines home. It is not an appealing alternative. Any such order would be interpreted universally as a pusillanimous act. It would be seen as a surrender to terrorists, and it would invite repetitions. The multinational force would be disbanded; diplomatic efforts at internal reconciliation would be set back; factional bloodshed would return. The result might be to carve up Lebanon and to serve most of it to Syria on a platter.
  22. Herbert, Bob (December 15, 2005). "The Man Who Said No to War". The New York Times. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  23. Curry, Tom (December 3, 2003). "Kerry warns of 'cut and run' in Iraq". NBC News. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  24. Fletcher, Michael (September 29, 2006). "Bush Attacks Party of 'Cut and Run'". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  25. Safire 2008, p. 457.
  26. Safire 2008, p. 656.
  27. Yaxley, Louise (March 25, 2004). "Cut-and-run or needed exit strategy: Parliament argues over troops". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  28. Wroe, David (October 21, 2015). "Don't cut and run from Afghanistan, warns Defence chief Mark Binskin". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  29. Wintour, Patrick (April 11, 2004). "Defeat would be victory for fanatics, says Blair". The Guardian. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  30. "Transcript of the Main Republican Presidential Debate". The New York Times. January 28, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  31. The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (Television production). CNN. June 20, 2006. Retrieved June 11, 2016.

Bibliography
  • Dickson, Paul (2003). War Slang: American Fighting Words and Phrases Since the Civil War (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: Brassey's. ISBN 9781574887105.
  • Kemp, Peter, ed. (February 24, 1994) [1976]. The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (Reprint ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192820846.
  • Mainwaring, Henry; Mainwaring, G.E.; Perrin, W.G. (2019). The Life and Works of Sir Henry Mainwaring. Vol. II. Routledge. ISBN 978-1911248828.
  • Safire, William (2008). Safire's Political Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195340617.
  • Steel, David (May 19, 2011) [First published 1794]. The Elements and Practice of Rigging, Seamanship, and Naval Tactics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1108026543.
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