cake cuttingn.
/ˈkeɪk ˌkʌtɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈkeɪk ˌkədɪŋ/ 1. The action or an act of cutting a cake, esp. as a customary ritual at a wedding or other celebratory event; (also) a celebration of this type. Frequently as a modifier, esp. as cake-cutting ceremony.
ΚΠ
1827 W. P. Scargill Blue-stocking Hall II. xxii. 282 We agreed that I should be allowed to repose in peace, and that the..cake-cutting, and all the idle mummery of a bridal day, should go on without me.
1856 ‘D. Butler’ Heirs of Blackridge Manor I. xix. 274 She rushed into the room where the cake-cutting and tea-making went on.
1964 High Point (N. Carolina) Enterprise 25 Oct. 2 d/1 A man who doesn't know any better might get the wrong notion that women don't do anything but go to meetings, cake cuttings and bridge games.
2010 S. Choron & H. Choron Planet Wedding i. 76/2 The traditional cake-cutting ceremony symbolizes the first task that bride and groom perform jointly as husband and wife.
2. figurative. The division of a resource, esp. when carried out in a manner that is fair to all recipients.
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1959 Accountant 10 Oct. 304/2 ‘Cake-cutting’, as this device has been termed, is going out of fashion, the number of company reports giving this type of income breakdown becoming ever fewer.
1996 Sci. News 21 Dec. 406/2 Turning to the mathematics of cake-cutting and point allocation, researchers developed new methods of settling disputes.
2014 H. Aziz & C. Ye in T.-Y. Liu et al. Proc. Conf. Web & Internet Econ. 1 Cake cutting is one of the most fundamental settings in fair division.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2020; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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