Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cheep, as a bird.
  • noun A small broken or cut off piece, as of wood, stone, or glass.
  • noun A crack or flaw caused by the removal of a small piece.
  • noun A small disk or counter used in poker and other games to represent money.
  • noun Slang Money.
  • noun A small, thin piece of semiconductor bearing numerous circuits integrated into its substrate. A chip smaller than a fingernail can hold millions of circuits. Most of a computer's circuitry is built from chips mounted on circuit boards.
  • noun A thin, usually fried slice of food, especially a potato chip.
  • noun A very small piece of food or candy.
  • noun Chiefly British French fries.
  • noun Wood, palm leaves, straw, or similar material cut and dried for weaving.
  • noun A fragment of dried animal dung used as fuel.
  • noun Something worthless.
  • noun Sports A chip shot.
  • intransitive verb To chop or cut with an ax or other implement.
  • intransitive verb To break a small piece from.
  • intransitive verb To break or cut off (a small piece).
  • intransitive verb To shape or carve by cutting or chopping.
  • intransitive verb To become broken off into small pieces.
  • intransitive verb Sports To make a chip shot in golf.
  • idiom (chip off the old block) A child whose appearance or character closely resembles that of one or the other parent.
  • idiom (chip on (one's) shoulder) A habitually hostile or combative attitude.
  • idiom (when the chips are down) At a critical or difficult time.
  • noun A trick method of throwing one's opponent in wrestling.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Specifically, in gem-cutting, a cleavage which weighs less than three fourths of a carat.
  • noun In wrestling, a special mode of throwing one's opponent; a trick.
  • noun A quarrel; a falling out; a ‘spat.’
  • To utter a short, dry, crisp sound, as a bird or a bat; cheep; chirp.
  • In poker, to bet a counter of the smallest value, in order to keep in the pool until others declare.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • To break or fly off in small pieces, as the glazing in pottery.
  • In poker, to bet a chip: as, I chip.
  • To carp; gibe; sneer.
  • noun The cry of the bat.
  • noun 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.
  • noun Wood, coarse straw, palm-leaves, or similar material split into thin slips and made by weaving into hats and bonnets.
  • noun Anything dried up and deprived of strength and character.
  • noun Specifically— The dried dung of the American bison; a buffalo-chip.
  • noun Nautical, the quadrant-shaped piece of wood attached to the end of the log-line. See log.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A carpenter: commonly in the plural.
  • noun A small wedge-shaped piece of ivory used in rough-tuning a piano.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To cut small pieces from; to diminish or reduce to shape, by cutting away a little at a time; to hew.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Imitative.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English cyp, beam, from Latin cippus.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English chip from Old English ċipp "log, beam, small piece of wood" from Proto-Germanic *kip(p)az (“log, beam”). Akin to Old Saxon kip "post", Old High German kipfa, chipfa "axle, stave", Old Norse keppr "cudgel, club". Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian cifël ("chip, splinter").

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Examples

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

    The Heavenly Twins Madame Sarah Grand

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

    The Tale of Jasper Jay Tuck-Me-In Tales Arthur Scott Bailey 1913

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

    The Tale of Rusty Wren Arthur Scott Bailey 1913

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

    The Tale of Rusty Wren Arthur Scott Bailey 1913

  • 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 Bradford Torrey 1877

  • 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 Bradford Torrey 1877

  • "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 George Manville Fenn 1870

  • 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! liamstliam 2009

  • 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 2008

  • 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 2005

Comments

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  • See piddle.

    August 27, 2008

  • 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".

    June 17, 2009

  • A chip fork:

    April 6, 2010

  • I was born with chip forks on the end of each arm.

    April 6, 2010