chop / chäp/ • v. (chopped, chop·ping) [tr.] cut (something) into small pieces with repeated sharp blows using an ax or knife. ∎  (chop something off) remove by cutting: they chopped off all her hair. ∎  cut through the base of (something, esp. a tree) with blows from an ax or similar implement, in order to fell it: the boy chopped down eight trees | [intr.] the men were chopping at the undergrowth with machetes. ∎  strike (a ball) with a short heavy blow, as if cutting at something. ∎  (usu. be chopped) abolish or reduce the size or extent of (something) in a way regarded as brutally sudden: their training courses are to be chopped.• n. 1. a downward cutting blow or movement, typically with the hand.2. a thick slice of meat, esp. pork or lamb, adjacent to, and typically including, a rib.3. crushed or ground grain used as animal feed.4. [in sing.] the broken motion of water, typically due to the action of the wind against the tide: we started our run into a two-foot chop.

chop1 not much chop no good; not up to much. The sense of chop here originated in the Hindi word chāp (in English since the early 17th century) meaning ‘official stamp’. As used by Europeans in the Far East, the word was extended to cover documents such as passports to which an official stamp or impression was attached and in China to mean ‘branded goods’. From this the sense developed in the late 19th century to mean something that has ‘class’ or has been validated as genuine or good.

chop 3 (usu. pl.) jaws xv; opening, entrance (as in Chops of the Channel the entrance into the English Channel from the Atlantic) XVII. var. of CHAP 2.

chop 2 barter, exchange XIV; phr. chop and change bargain (XV), make frequent changes (XVI); hence, change as the wind, veer XVII. perh. var. of ME. chappe, which appears to have been evolved from OE. ċēapian with infl. from CHAPMAN.

chop2 chop logic argue in a tiresomely pedantic way; quibble (from a dialect use of chop ‘cut’ meaning ‘bandy words’). Compare logic chopping.