Cut and run or cut-and-run is an idiomatic verb phrase meaning to "make off promptly" or to "hurry off". The phrase was in use by the 1700s to describe an act allowing a ship to make sail quickly in an urgent situation, by cutting free an anchor. 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 pejoratively in political language, implying a panicked and cowardly retreat, and it has been used by politicians as a criticism of calls to withdraw troops from various armed conflicts, becoming particularly associated with the Iraq War and with the diction of the United States Republican Party. It has also been used in other contexts, such as in World War II military slang and to refer to a container shipping practice.