also cutout, 1851, in reference to a kind of switch on a circuit to cut out an instrument, from the verbal phrase, from cut (v.) + out (adv.). The verbal phrase is attested from c. 1400 as "cut so as to take out;" from 1550s as "fashion or shape by cutting;" from 1736 as "remove, excise, omit." From 1640s as "be naturally formed or fashioned" (for some specified purpose).
"gradual, planned removal or elimination," 1958, from the verbal phrase (1954; see phase (v.)).
also freakout "bad psychedelic drug trip," or something comparable to one, 1966, from verbal phrase freak out, attested from 1965 in the drug sense (from 1902 in a sense "change, distort, come out of alignment"); see freak (n.). There is a coincidental appearance of the phrase in "Fanny Hill:"
She had had her freak out, and had pretty plentifully drowned her curiosity in a glut of pleasure .... [Cleland, "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," 1749]
where the sense is "she had concluded her prank."