Cut and run or cut-and-run is an idiomatic verb phrase meaning to "make off promptly" or to "hurry off". The phrase originated in the 1700s as describing an act allowing a ship to make sail quickly in an urgent situation, either by cutting free an anchor or by cutting ropeyarns to unfurl sails from the yards on a square rig ship. 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 as a pejorative in political language, implying a panicked and cowardly retreat, and it has been used by politicians in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia as a criticism of calls to withdraw troops, becoming particularly associated with the United States Republican Party.
Origin
To "cut and run" was defined by Englishman David Steel in 1794 as "to cut the cable and make sail instantly, without waiting to weigh anchor". He further described the practice as "quick but very expensive" but sometimes necessary, 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; 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. An alternate origin comes from the practice on square rig ships to furl the sails stopped to the yards with ropeyarns so that the yarns may be cut to let the sails fall unfurled should an urgent need to sail arise. The phrase 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.
Usage
Though "cut and run" initially referred to a literal act, the phrase later appeared in figurative usage in White-Jacket by American authorHerman Melville and in Great Expectations by English author Charles Dickens. Oxford English Dictionary defines the figurative, colloquial usage as "to make off promptly" or to "hurry off".
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". Dana Milbank characterized the phrase as a slogan used by members of United States Republican Party, 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. 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". In the United States, the phrase saw usage by politicians as a criticism against calls to withdraw from the Lebanese Civil War, Vietnam War, and Iraq War. It was also used in similarly in Australia in reference to the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan and in Great Britain in reference to the Iraq War. 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. 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."
Military
US military slang used the expression to describe an "operation consisting of a sudden attack followed by an immediate withdrawal, before a counterattack can be mounted".
