chop

• (UK) enPR: chŏp, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɒp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɑp/

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• Hyphenation: chop
• Rhymes: -ɒp

From Middle English choppen, chappen (“to chop”), of uncertain origin, possibly an onomatopoeia. Cognate with Scots chap (“to chop”). Compare Saterland Frisian kappe, kapje (“to hack; chop; lop off”), Dutch kappen (“to chop, cut, hew”), German Low German kappen (“to cut off; clip”), German kappen (“to cut; clip”), German dialectal chapfen, kchapfen (“to chop into small pieces”), Albanian copë (“piece, chunk”), Old English *ċippian (in forċippian (“to cut off”)). Perhaps related to 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.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1962, OCLC 751607287, page 18:

     Of the two fried chops served him for breakfast he ate one and gave Edmund the other, and put a buttered sandwich of bread in his pocket against the accidents of travel.

   • 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; the sack.
7. (Australia, New Zealand) A woodchopping competition.
   • 1924 October 6, The Examiner, page 2, column 6:

     E, C. McsEnulty, who won the chop at the show on Thursday, cut through a foot lying block in 34 seconds[.]

8. (dated) A crack or cleft; a chap.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:chop.

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

• → Japanese: チョップ

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.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], OCLC 228727523:

     Out of a Greediness to get both, he Chops at the Shadow, and Loses the Substance.

8. (intransitive) To interrupt; with in or out.
   • 1550, Hugh Latimer, Sermon Preached before King Edward

     This fellow […] interrupted the sermon, even suddenly chopping in.

9. (transitive, Hong Kong) To stab.
   • 1959 June 8, China Mail, page 10:

     A man had chopped a Sanitary Department coolie to death after an argument about money, Supreme Court was told today.

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

    Coordinate term: chomp

Uncertain, 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, Areopagitica:

     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. (obsolete) To twist words.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, OCLC 863521290:

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

5. To converse, discuss, or speak with another.

chop (plural chops)

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

• 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”). Closely related to the similarly descended Malay word cap, which likely reinforced the English usage within the Malay world.

chop (plural chops)

1. (colloquial, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei) A stamp or seal; a mark, imprint or impression on a document (or other object or material) made by stamping or sealing a design with ink or wax, respectively, or by other methods. [from 19th c.]
2. (colloquial, by extension, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei) The device used for stamping or sealing, which also contains the design to be imprinted.
3. A mark indicating nature, quality, or brand.

   silk of the first chop

4. A license or passport that has been sealed.
5. A complete shipment.

   a chop of tea

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

1. (transitive, colloquial, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei) To stamp or seal (a document); to mark, impress or otherwise place a design or symbol on paper or other material, usually, but not necessarily, to indicate authenticity. [from 19th c.]
2. To seal a license or passport.

• chop dollar
• grand chop
• not much chop

• Lisa Lim (28 July 2016), “Where does the word 'chop' come from?”, in South China Morning Post‎

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 suey

From English chop.

chop

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) chop (stamp; seal) (Classifier: 個／个 c)

   郵chop／邮chop [Cantonese]  ―  jau⁴ cop¹ [Jyutping]  ―  postal seal

chop

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to stamp; to seal

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

chop

1. eat
2. spend

From Proto-Slavic *xolpъ.

chop m

1. man, male