choppy

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   of water or weather, rough with many small, short waves

   A choppy wind made the small boat pitch sharply.

2. 2
   adj

   marked by abrupt transitions or disconnected parts

   The editor smoothed the choppy prose into a coherent narrative.

3. 3
   adj

   intermittent or broken in transmission, especially of sound or video

   The call became choppy whenever the train entered a tunnel.

From chop + -y. The maritime sense grew from chop as a word for short, irregular waves; the figurative senses transfer that uneven, broken motion to prose, speech, sound, and other sequences.

Topics