chop

• (UK) enPR: chŏp, IPA^(key): /tʃɒp/

• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: chop
• Rhymes: -ɒp

From Middle English choppen, variant of chappen (“to chop”), from Old English *ċeappian, *ċieppan, from Proto-Germanic *kapp-, *kap- (“to chop; cut; split”), whence also Scots chap. Akin to Saterland Frisian kappe, kapje (“to hack; chop; lop off”), Dutch kappen (“to chop, cut, hew”), Middle Low German koppen (“to cut off, lop, poll”), German Low German kappen (“to cut off; clip”), German kappen (“to cut; clip”), German dialectal chapfen (“to chop into small pieces”), Danish kappe (“to cut, lop off, poll”), Swedish kapa (“to cut”), Albanian copë (“piece, chunk”), Old English *ċippian (attested in forċippian (“to cut off”)). More at chip.

chop (plural chops)

Chopping garlic

1. A cut of meat, often containing a section of a rib.

   I only like lamb chops with mint jelly.

   • 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey:

     I was standing at the meat counter, waiting for some rib lamb chops to be cut.

2. A blow with an axe, cleaver, or similar utensil.

   It should take just one good chop to fell the sapling.

3. (martial arts) A blow delivered with the hand rigid and outstretched.

   A karate chop.

4. Ocean waves, generally caused by wind, distinguished from swell by being smaller and not lasting as long.
5. (poker) A hand where two or more players have an equal-valued hand, resulting in the chips being shared equally between them.

   With both players having an ace-high straight, the pot was a chop.

6. (informal, with "the") Termination, especially from employment.
7. (dated) A crack or cleft; a chap.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:chop.

• (dismissal, especially from employment (informal)): axe, pink slip, sack

chop (third-person singular simple present chops, present participle chopping, simple past and past participle chopped)

1. (transitive) To cut into pieces with short, vigorous cutting motions.

   chop wood; chop an onion

2. (transitive) To sever with an axe or similar implement.

   Chop off his head.

3. (transitive) to give a downward cutting blow or movement, typically with the side of the hand.
4. (transitive, baseball) To hit the ball downward so that it takes a high bounce.
5. (poker) To divide the pot (or tournament prize) between two or more players. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
6. (intransitive) To make a quick, heavy stroke or a series of strokes, with or as with an ax.
7. (intransitive) To do something suddenly with an unexpected motion; to catch or attempt to seize.
   • (Can we date this quote?) L'Estrange

     Out of greediness to get both, he chops at the shadow, and loses the substance.

8. (intransitive) To interrupt; with in or out.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Latimer

     This fellow interrupted the sermon, even suddenly chopping in.

9. (computing, transitive, Perl) To remove the final character from (a text string).

Of uncertain origin, perhaps a variant of chap (“cheap”). Compare Middle English copen (“to buy”), Dutch kopen (“to buy”).

chop (third-person singular simple present chops, present participle chopping, simple past and past participle chopped)

1. (obsolete) To exchange, to barter; to swap.
   • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:

     this is not to put down Prelaty, this is but to chop an Episcopacy; this is but to translate the Palace Metropolitan from one kind of dominion into another, this is but an old canonicall sleight of commuting our penance.

2. To chap or crack.
3. (nautical) To vary or shift suddenly.

   The wind chops about.

4. To wrangle; to altercate; to bandy words.
   • (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon?)

     Let not the counsel at the bar chop with the judge.

chop (plural chops)

1. A turn of fortune; change; a vicissitude.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Marryat to this entry?)

• chop and change
• chops and changes

Perhaps a variant of chap (“jaw”). Compare also Middle English cheppe (“one side of the jaw, chap”).

chop (plural chops)

1. (chiefly in the plural) A jaw of an animal.
2. A movable jaw or cheek, as of a vice.
3. The land at each side of the mouth of a river, harbour, or channel.

   East Chop; West Chop

Borrowed from Hindi छाप (chāp, “stamp”)

chop (plural chops)

1. An official stamp or seal, as in China and India.
2. A mark indicating nature, quality, or brand.

   silk of the first chop

3. A license or passport that has been sealed.

• chop dollar
• chop of tea
• grand chop

Shortening.

chop (plural chops)

1. (Internet) An IRC channel operator.
   • 1996, Peter Ludlow, High Noon on the Electronic Frontier (page 404)

     IRC supports mechanisms for the enforcement of acceptable behaviour on IRC. Channel operators — "chanops" or "chops" — have access to the /kick command, which throws a specified user out of the given channel.

• chanop
• op

• chop chop

chop

1. eat
2. spend