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.