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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A small broken or cut off piece, as of wood, stone, or glass.
  2. n. A crack or flaw caused by the removal of a small piece.
  3. n. A small disk or counter used in poker and other games to represent money.
  4. n. Slang Money.
  5. n. Electronics A minute slice of a semiconducting material, such as silicon or germanium, doped and otherwise processed to have specified electrical characteristics, especially before it is developed into an electronic component or integrated circuit. Also called microchip.
  6. n. An integrated circuit.
  7. n. A thin, usually fried slice of food, especially a potato chip. Often used in the plural.
  8. n. A very small piece of food or candy. Often used in the plural: chocolate chips.
  9. n. Chiefly British French fries.
  10. n. Wood, palm leaves, straw, or similar material cut and dried for weaving.
  11. n. A fragment of dried animal dung used as fuel.
  12. n. Something worthless.
  13. n. Sports A chip shot.
  14. v. To chop or cut with an ax or other implement.
  15. v. To break a small piece from: chip a tooth.
  16. v. To break or cut off (a small piece): chip ice from the window.
  17. v. To shape or carve by cutting or chopping: chipped her name in the stone.
  18. v. To become broken off into small pieces.
  19. v. Sports To make a chip shot in golf.
  20. chip away To reduce or make progress on something incrementally: We chipped away until the problem was solved.
  21. chip in To contribute money or labor: We all chipped in for beer.
  22. chip in To interrupt with comments; interject.
  23. chip in To put up chips or money as one's bet in poker and other games.
  24. idiom. chip off the old block A child whose appearance or character closely resembles that of one or the other parent.
  25. idiom. chip on (one's) shoulder A habitually hostile or combative attitude.
  26. idiom. when the chips are down At a critical or difficult time.
  27. v. To cheep, as a bird.
  28. n. Sports A trick method of throwing one's opponent in wrestling.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To cut into small pieces or chips; diminish or disfigure by cutting away a little at a time or in small pieces; hack away. See chipping.
  2. In poker, faro, and other games at cards, to bet; lay a wager: as, to chip five dollars (that is, to stake chips representing five dollars).
  3. To break or fly off in small pieces, as the glazing in pottery.
  4. In poker, to bet a chip: as, I chip.
  5. To carp; gibe; sneer.
  6. n. A small fragment of wood, stone, or other substance, separated from a body by a blow of an instrument, particularly a cutting instrument, as an ax, an adz, or a chisel.
  7. n. Wood, coarse straw, palm-leaves, or similar material split into thin slips and made by weaving into hats and bonnets.
  8. n. Anything dried up and deprived of strength and character.
  9. n. Specifically— The dried dung of the American bison; a buffalo-chip.
  10. n. Nautical, the quadrant-shaped piece of wood attached to the end of the log-line. See log.
  11. n. One of the small disks or counters used in poker and some other games at cards, usually of ivory or bone, marked to represent various sums of money.
  12. n. A carpenter: commonly in the plural.
  13. n. A small wedge-shaped piece of ivory used in rough-tuning a piano.
  14. To utter a short, dry, crisp sound, as a bird or a bat; cheep; chirp.
  15. n. The cry of the bat.
  16. In poker, to bet a counter of the smallest value, in order to keep in the pool until others declare.
  17. n. Specifically, in gem-cutting, a cleavage which weighs less than three fourths of a carat.
  18. n. In wrestling, a special mode of throwing one's opponent; a trick.
  19. n. A quarrel; a falling out; a ‘spat.’

Wiktionary

  1. n. A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material.
  2. n. A damaged area of a surface where a chip has been broken off.
  3. n. A token used in place of cash in gambling.
  4. n. A circuit fabricated in one piece on a small, thin substrate.
  5. n. A thin, crisp, baked piece of vegetable, usually potato.
  6. n. A fried strip of potato of square or rectangular cross-section, similar to French fries.
  7. n. A shot where the ball goes more upwards than a regular shot
  8. n. A takeout that hits a rock at an angle.
  9. n. A dried piece of dung used as fuel.
  10. n. A receptacle, usually for strawberries or other fruit.
  11. v. To break into small pieces.
  12. v. To break small pieces from.
  13. v. To play a shot where the ball goes predominately upwards rather than forwards
  14. v. to upgrade an engine management system, usually to increase power.
  15. v. To become chipped.
  16. v. Often with "in", to ante (up).
  17. v. To fit (an animal) with a microchip.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To cut small pieces from; to diminish or reduce to shape, by cutting away a little at a time; to hew.
  2. v. To break or crack, or crack off a portion of, as of an eggshell in hatching, or a piece of crockery.
  3. v. To bet, as with chips in the game of poker.
  4. v. To break or fly off in small pieces.
  5. n. A piece of wood, stone, or other substance, separated by an ax, chisel, or cutting instrument.
  6. n. A fragment or piece broken off; a small piece.
  7. n. Wood or Cuban palm leaf split into slips, or straw plaited in a special manner, for making hats or bonnets.
  8. n. Anything dried up, withered, or without flavor; -- used contemptuously.
  9. n. One of the counters used in poker and other games.
  10. n. The triangular piece of wood attached to the log line.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. cut a nick into
  2. n. the act of chipping something
  3. n. electronic equipment consisting of a small crystal of a silicon semiconductor fabricated to carry out a number of electronic functions in an integrated circuit
  4. n. a triangular wooden float attached to the end of a log line
  5. n. (golf) a low running approach shot
  6. n. a mark left after a small piece has been chopped or broken off of something
  7. v. break a small piece off from
  8. v. form by chipping
  9. v. play a chip shot
  10. n. a piece of dried bovine dung
  11. n. a small disk-shaped counter used to represent money when gambling
  12. n. a small fragment of something broken off from the whole
  13. n. a thin crisp slice of potato fried in deep fat
  14. v. break off (a piece from a whole)

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Old English cyp, beam, from Latin cippus.Imitative.Origin unknown.

Examples

  • “_Thou art a chip -- Thou art a chip_," Angelica responded.”

    The Heavenly Twins

  • “And when he said, "_Chip, chip, chip, chip_," Rusty knew that there could be no doubt about it.”

    The Tale of Rusty Wren

  • “And he began screaming, "_Chip, chip, chip, chip_," in a very shrill voice which was most annoying to hear.”

    The Tale of Rusty Wren

  • “He never says anything except '_Chip, chip, chip, chip_,'" Jasper often remarked.”

    The Tale of Jasper Jay Tuck-Me-In Tales

  • “One of these went past me as I stood by the roadside, rising very gradually into the air and repeating all the way, _Chip, chip, chip, chip_, till at last he broke into the warble, which was a full half longer than usual.”

    Birds in the Bush

  • “He rose for perhaps thirty feet, not spirally, but in a zigzag course, -- like a horse climbing a hill with a heavy load, -- all the time calling, _chip, chip, chip_.”

    Birds in the Bush

  • “Right!" replied Dale; and a minute later he caught the rings of hemp thrown to him, and rapidly knotted the middle round Saxe, the end to his own waist; and as he knotted, _click, click! chip, chip_! went the ice-axe, deftly wielded by the guide, who with two or three blows broke through enough of the crust to make a secure footing while the ice flew splintering down the slope in miniature avalanches, with a peculiar metallic tinkling sound.”

    The Crystal Hunters A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps

  • “With 200,000 neurons linked up by 50 million synaptic connections, the chip is able to mimic the brain's ability to learn more closely than any other machine.”

    Tew's Day!

  • “The FeliCa chip is the contactless IC card usually used for electronic payments, but on some models at least it seems to be able to transmit.”

    Exchanging phone numbers

  • “I realize the chip is the expensive piece of the computer but you would think they would get the hint and replace it.”

    Dell tales « BuzzMachine

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘chip’.

Comments

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  • bilby I was born with chip forks on the end of each arm. Apr 6, 2010

  • PossibleUnderscore A chip fork:
    http://www.jbsilverware.co.uk/ProductImages/Broadway%20Chip%20Fork.jpg"> Apr 6, 2010

  • cohenizzy For a little while I forsook you but with vast love I will bring you back. In slight anger (SHeTZeF QeTZeF), for a moment, I hid My face from you but with everlasting kindness I will bring you back in love, said the Lord your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:7-8)

    SHeTZeF QeTZeF is the origin of the idioms "nose is out of joint", "chip on ... shoulder" and "gets up my nose". Substituting a tof for the tzadi produces the pun SHuToF + KaTeF = joint + shoulder. Even the sound of "iS ouT oF" is a loose transliteration of and pun on SHuToF (joint). "Gets up" is a pun on QeTZeF and @aF is a homonym that means both "nose" and "anger". See "dust up" as a noun meaning "a quarrel".

    Jun 16, 2009

  • chained_bear See piddle. Aug 27, 2008

‘chip’ has been looked up 1801 times, loved by 1 person, added to 36 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.