chop

chop 1[chop] ExamplesWord Origin verb (used with object), chopped, chop·ping.

1. to cut or sever with a quick, heavy blow or a series of blows, using an ax, hatchet, etc. (often followed by down, off, etc.): to chop down a tree.
2. to make or prepare for use by so cutting: to chop logs.
3. to cut in pieces; mince (often followed by up): to chop up an onion; to chop meat.
4. (in tennis, cricket, etc.) to hit (a ball) with a chop stroke.
5. to weed and thin out (growing cotton) with a hoe.
6. Fox Hunting. (of a hound or pack) to attack and kill (a fox that has not begun to run).

verb (used without object), chopped, chop·ping.

7. to make a quick, heavy stroke or a series of strokes, as with an ax.
8. Boxing. to throw or deliver a short blow, especially a downward one while in a clinch.
9. (in tennis, cricket, etc.) to employ or deliver a chop stroke.
10. to go, come, or move suddenly or violently.

noun

11. an act or instance of chopping.
12. a cutting blow.
13. Boxing. a short blow, especially a downward one, executed while in a clinch.
14. a piece chopped off.
15. an individual cut or portion of meat, as mutton, lamb, veal, or pork, usually one containing a rib.
16. crushed or ground grain used as animal feed.
17. a short, irregular, broken motion of waves; choppiness: There’s too much chop for rowing today.
18. rough, turbulent water, as of a sea or lake.
19. (in tennis, cricket, etc.) a chop stroke.

Idioms

20. chop/cut down to size. cut(def 89).

Origin of chop 1 1350–1400; Middle English choppen; variant of chap1 Synonym study 1. See cut. chop 2[chop] verb (used without object), chopped, chop·ping.

1. to turn, shift, or change suddenly: The wind chopped to the west.
2. to vacillate; change one’s mind.
3. Obsolete.
   1. to barter.
   2. to bandy words; argue.

Idioms

4. chop logic, to reason or dispute argumentatively; draw unnecessary distinctions.

Origin of chop 2 1425–75; variant of obsolete chap barter, Middle English chappen (with vowel as in chapman), chepen, Old English cēapian to trade (derivative of cēap sale, trade; see cheap) Related Words for chopping cleave, cube, divide, mince, slash, hack, whack, hew, hash, clip, fragment, mangle, lop, fell, shear, truncate, sever, dice, axe, hackle Examples from the Web for chopping Contemporary Examples of chopping

And how do fraternity members feel about their organizations being on the chopping block?

Fraternities in a Post-UVA World

Samantha Allen

December 12, 2014

I care more about chopping trees down than buying you that Yohji Yamamoto blouse as a surprise.

How Straight World Stole ‘Gay’: The Last Gasp of the ‘Lumbersexual’

Tim Teeman

November 12, 2014

Also, programs designed to help low-income families are always the first on the chopping block when state revenues go down.

Free Market Failure: Raising a Kid Is a Rigged Game in the USA

Monica Potts

August 25, 2014

But this year, amid severe budget cuts in Washington; it once again went to the chopping block.

Gov’t Abandons Best Survey for Counting U.S. Drug Users

Abby Haglage

April 8, 2014

“As soon as a financial crisis or economic downturn happens, often mental health is back on the chopping block,” Gruttadaro says.

How American Hospitals Are Failing Mentally Ill Kids

Brandy Zadrozny

March 19, 2014

Historical Examples of chopping

They decided that the only way was to keep walking, and by and by they heard the sound of chopping.

Quaint Courtships

Various

A boy was chopping frozen moose-meat with an axe, and the chips were flying in the snow.

White Fang

Jack London

Smith swung out as awkwardly as a turkey on a chopping block.

The Cruise of the Dry Dock

T. S. Stribling

And in the tree sat a man who was chopping off the smaller boughs with an ax.

The Chinese Fairy Book

Various

The man and woman were chopping at the viscous, gruesome head.

Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930

Various

British Dictionary definitions for chopping chop 1 verb chops, chopping or chopped

1. (often foll by down or off) to cut (something) with a blow from an axe or other sharp tool
2. (tr) to produce or make in this mannerto chop firewood
3. (tr often foll by up) to cut into pieces
4. (tr) British informal to dispense with or reduce
5. (intr) to move quickly or violently
6. sport to hit (a ball) sharply downwards
7. boxing martial arts to punch or strike (an opponent) with a short sharp blow
8. Western African an informal word for eat

noun

9. a cutting blow
10. the act or an instance of chopping
11. a piece chopped off
12. a slice of mutton, lamb, or pork, generally including a rib
13. Australian and NZ slang a share (esp in the phrase get or hop in for one’s chop)
14. Western African an informal word for food
15. Australian and NZ a competition of skill and speed in chopping logs
16. sport a sharp downward blow or stroke
17. not much chop Australian and NZ informal not much good; poor
18. the chop slang dismissal from employment

Word Origin for chop C16: variant of chap 1 chop 2 verb chops, chopping or chopped

1. (intr) to change direction suddenly; vacillate (esp in the phrase chop and change)
2. obsolete to barter
3. chop logic to use excessively subtle or involved logic or argument

Word Origin for chop Old English ceapian to barter; see cheap, chapman chop 3 noun

1. a design stamped on goods as a trademark, esp in the Far East

Word Origin for chop C17: from Hindi chhāp Word Origin and History for chopping adj.

“large and thriving,” 1560s, past participle adjective from chop (v.). Cf. strapping, whopping in similar sense.

chopping. An epithet frequently applied to infants, by way of ludicrous commendation: imagined by Skinner to signify lusty, from cas Sax. by others to mean a child that would bring money at a market. Perhaps a greedy, hungry child, likely to live. [Johnson] chop v.1

“to cut with a quick blow,” mid-14c., of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old North French choper (Old French coper “to cut, cut off,” 12c., Modern French couper), from Vulgar Latin *cuppare “to behead,” from a root meaning “head,” but influenced in Old French by couper “to strike.” Related: Chopped; chopping.

chop v.2

“shift quickly,” 1530s, earlier “to bargain” (early 15c.), ultimately from Old English ceapian “to bargain” (see cheap); here with a sense of “changing back and forth,” probably from common expressions such as to chop and change “barter.” To chop logic is recorded from 1570s. Related: Chopped; chopping.

chop n.

“act of chopping,” mid-14c., from chop (v.1). Meaning “piece cut off” is mid-15c.; specifically “slice of meat” from mid-17c. Sense of “a blow, strike” is from 1550s.