diff --git a/jquery.timeago.js b/jquery.timeago.js
index e3731b2..da181e0 100644
--- a/jquery.timeago.js
+++ b/jquery.timeago.js
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
       refreshMillis: 60000,
       allowFuture: false,
       localeTitle: false,
+      cutoff: 0,
       strings: {
         prefixAgo: null,
         prefixFromNow: null,
@@ -150,8 +151,12 @@
 
   function refresh() {
     var data = prepareData(this);
+    var $s = $t.settings;
+
     if (!isNaN(data.datetime)) {
-      $(this).text(inWords(data.datetime));
+      if ( $s.cutoff == 0 || distance(data.datetime) < $s.cutoff) {
+        $(this).text(inWords(data.datetime));
+      }
     }
     return this;
   }
diff --git a/test/index.html b/test/index.html
index cee81f9..e0e105d 100644
--- a/test/index.html
+++ b/test/index.html
@@ -63,6 +63,12 @@
     <p><time id="testTimeTitle" class="timeago" datetime="2012-05-07T10:06:02+02:00" title="May 10, 2012 10:06">May 10, 2012</time></p>
     <p><time id="testTimeTitle2" class="timeago" datetime="2012-05-07T10:06:02+02:00">May 10, 2012</time></p>
 
+    <h2>Cutoff</h2>
+
+    <p>Date that is older than cutoff: <abbr class="timeago cutoff doCutoff" title="1978-12-18">(this should be displayed)</abbr></p>
+
+    <p>Date that is newer than cutoff: <abbr class="timeago loaded cutoff dontCutoff">(you shouldn't see this)</abbr></p>
+
     <h2>Errors</h2>
 
     <p>Bad (letters): <abbr class="bad timeago" title="bleh">(this should be displayed)</abbr>.</p>
@@ -212,9 +218,13 @@
 
       prepareDynamicDates();
 
-      $("abbr.timeago").timeago();
+      $("abbr.timeago").not("abbr.cutoff").timeago();
       $("time.timeago").timeago();
 
+      loadCutoffSetting();
+      $("abbr.cutoff").timeago();
+      unloadCutoffSetting();
+
       var tooltip = $("#testTooltip").data("timeago");
 
       $("abbr.todate").each(function () {
@@ -291,6 +301,20 @@
         ok(tooltip.datetime, "datetime set");
       });
 
+      module("Cutoff");
+
+      test("should not change dates older than cutoff setting", function () {
+        ok(testElements("abbr.doCutoff", function (element) {
+          return (element.html() === "(this should be displayed)");
+        }), "Cutoff setting working fine");
+      });
+
+      test("should change dates newer than cutoff setting", function () {
+        ok(testElements("abbr.dontCutoff", function (element) {
+          return (element.html() === "less than a minute ago");
+        }), "Cutoff setting working fine");
+      });
+
       module("Tooltip");
 
       test("should set title to original text contents", function () {
diff --git a/test/test_helpers.js b/test/test_helpers.js
index bafb787..7cf78cf 100644
--- a/test/test_helpers.js
+++ b/test/test_helpers.js
@@ -22,6 +22,14 @@ function unloadNumbers() {
   jQuery.timeago.settings.strings.numbers = [];
 }
 
+function loadCutoffSetting() {
+	jQuery.timeago.settings.cutoff = 7*24*60*60*1000;
+}
+
+function unloadCutoffSetting() {
+	jQuery.timeago.settings.cutoff = 0;
+}
+
 function loadPigLatin() {
   jQuery.timeago.settings.strings = {
     suffixAgo: "ago-hay",