cut upverb

• 1

  To cut upward.

• 2

  To cut into smaller pieces, parts, or sections.

  • With a little practice, you can cut up a whole chicken yourself for frying.
  • The locomotive involved in the derailment of the 4.33 a.m. train from Ruabon to Barmouth on the night of October 6, due to the bursting of the banks of the Shropshire Union Canal near Llangollen, was 2-6-0 No. 6315; the position into which the locomotive fell so completely defied all attempts to re-rail it that it was cut up on the spot.
• 3

  informalTo lacerate; to wound by multiple lacerations; to injure or damage by cutting, or as if by cutting.

  • The attackers cut him up pretty bad.
  • I once cut a guy up because he was making advances to a kid that I was very much in love with.
• 4

  To distress mentally or emotionally.

  • And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event[…]
• 5

  datedTo severely criticize or censure; to subject to hostile criticism.

  • The reviewer cut up the book mercilessly.
  • “I didn’t mean any offence—beg pardon—hang it, you cut up quite savage,” said Pen’s astonished interlocutor.
• 6

  To behave like a clown or jokester (a cut-up); to misbehave; to act in a playful, comical, boisterous, or unruly manner to elicit laughter, attention, etc.

  • We need to talk about Johnny's tendency to cut up in class.
  • I had been cutting up some caper or other—I think it was trying to crawl up the chimney, as I had seen a little sweep do a few days previous; and my stepmother who, somehow or other, was all the time whipping me, or sending me to bed supperless,—my mother dragged me by the legs out of the chimney and packed me off to bed, though it was only two o’clock in the afternoon of the 21st June, the longest day in the year in our hemisphere.
• 7

  To move aggressively in front of another vehicle while driving.

  • If you are a victim of Road Rage, this normally means you may have inadvertently cut someone up on the road, or he may perceive that you have cut him up.
  • The third gave an account of losing her temper in traffic, after being cut up by another driver, then bursting into tears.
• 8

  To disintegrate; to break into pieces.

  • The first match in the magnificent new national stadium was a Euro 2012 qualifier between Romania and France that soon descended into farce as the pitch cut up and players struggled to maintain their footing. Amorebieta at times seemed to be paying homage to that game, but nobody else seemed to have a problem; it was just that Falcao was far better than him.

cut upadj

• 1

  Having been cut into smaller pieces.

  • Put the cut up vegetables in the pot.
• 2

  Wounded with multiple lacerations.

  • He is cut up pretty bad.
• 3

  Emotionally upset; mentally distressed.

  • She was seriously cut up over her dog disappearing.
• 4

  slanginformalMuscular and lean.

  • I go to the gym to get stronger and cut up.