Definitions

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

  • noun A woman's shoe worn in the 1500s and 1600s that featured a very high, thick sole.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A very high clog or patten, of Oriental origin, in some cases resembling a short stilt, formerly worn by women under their shoes to elevate them from the ground.

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

  • noun A clog, or patten, having a very thick sole, or in some cases raised upon a stilt to a height of a foot or more.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A bottle of wine (usually Bordeaux) containing 0.250 liters of fluid, 1/3 the volume of a standard bottle
  • noun A type of women's platform shoe that was popular in the 15th and 16th centuries

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a woman's shoe with a very high thick sole

Etymologies

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

[Obsolete French chapin, from Old Spanish, from chapa, plate, covering, from Old French; see chape.]

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Examples

  • A fashion fact: the chopine was a 15th-century platform shoe that, on occasion, rose to a towering 30 inches, requiring madam to walk with a cane or simply a servant - a cane with legs?

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2009

  • Entering with a careless air and taking a seat at a table near that occupied by the fugitive and the man in the slouch hat, he called for a plate of meat and a "chopine" of wine in a guttural voice.

    Monsieur Lecoq ��mile Gaboriau 1852

  • Originally they were created to keep one's feet out of the dirt and mud on the streets, but Venetian courtesans adopted an extravagant form of chopine as their trademark.

    Leora Tanenbaum: Our Stripper Shoes, Ourselves 2010

  • In fifteenth-century Italy, shoemakers created an eroticized platform shoe for women called the chopine.

    Leora Tanenbaum: Our Stripper Shoes, Ourselves 2010

  • Take for example a chopine 3 cups/750 ml of good milk. . .

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

  • Take for example a chopine 3 cups/750 ml of good milk. . .

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

  • He creaked to and fro, tiptoing up nearer heaven by the altitude of a chopine, and, covered by the noise of outgoing, said low: —

    Ulysses 2003

  • "You will have a chopine of ale, Baldy," said he to the old wreck; "sometimes it's all the difference between hell-fire and content, and -- for God's sake buy the bairn a pair of boots!"

    Doom Castle Neil Munro

  • By ’r lady, your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine.

    Act II. Scene II. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 1914

  • He creaked to and fro, tiptoing up nearer heaven by the altitude of a chopine, and, covered by the noise of outgoing, said low:

    Ulysses James Joyce 1911

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