chop

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To cut something into pieces with quick, hard strokes of a knife or axe.

   We chopped the vegetables for the soup.

2. 2
   noun

   A small, thick piece of meat, usually with a piece of bone in it.

   I love lamb chops with mint jelly.

3. 3
   noun

   A short, hard blow given with the side of the hand.

   He broke the board with a single karate chop.

4. 4
   noun

   Small rough waves on water, usually caused by wind.

   The little boat rocked as it headed into the chop.

Multiword verbs with chop

• chop off Phrasal verb B2

  to remove a part with a sharp cutting stroke

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Chop in the sense “cut into small pieces” is a variant of chap, formerly meaning “become cracked or sore.” A separate older sense of chop was “barter or exchange,” which appears with change in the 15th-century phrase chop and change, originally meaning “buy and sell.”

From Middle English choppen, chappen (“to chop”), of uncertain origin, possibly onomatopoeic, or a variant of chap (“to become cracked”). Cognate with Scots chap (“to chop”). Compare also 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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary