to cut a dash

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

In modern colloquial speech, to make a great show; to make a figure.--Johnson. A fashionable or gaily dressed lady in walking the streets is often said to cut a dash. In Scotland, according to Dr. Jamieson, the phrase to cast a dash, to make a great figure or a splendid appearance, is used.


Bowden wi' pride o' simmer gloss,

To cast a dash at Reikie's cross?--Fergusson's Poems, 2. 32.

I saw the curl of his waving lash

And the glance of his knowing eye,

And I knew that he thought he was cutting a dash,

As his steed went thundering by.--O. W. Holmes's Poems, p. 105.

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