cuttle

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈkʌtəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English cutil, codel, codul, from Old English cudele (“cuttlefish”), a diminutive from Proto-Germanic *kudilǭ, from Proto-Germanic *kuddô + -ilǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *gewt- (“pouch, sack”), from *gew- (“to bend, bow, arch, vault, curve”). Equivalent to cod +‎ -le (diminutive suffix). Compare dialectal German Kudele (“cuttlefish”), Norwegian kaule (“cuttlefish”).

Noun

cuttle (plural cuttles)

Synonym of cuttlefish

Derived terms

cuttlebone

Etymology 2

From Middle English coutel, from Old French coutel, coltel, cultel, from Latin cultellus. Doublet of couteau. See cutlass.

Noun

cuttle (plural cuttles)

(obsolete) A knife.
- 1546, John Bale, The Actes of Englysh Votaries:
  a sharpe cuttle

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

cuttle (plural cuttles)

(obsolete) A foul-mouthed fellow.
- c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
  An you play the saucy cuttle me.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “cuttle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

cutlet