Word.ws English Dictionary

chipped chopped ham

chipped chopped ham noun: a finely ground, processed luncheon meat, typically made of spiced ham loaf shaved into thin chips; especially associated with delicatessens and home cooking in Western Pennsylvania.

Noun

chipped chopped ham (uncountable)

  1. (Pennsylvania, Western, chiefly Pittsburgh area) A finely ground, processed luncheon meat, typically made of spiced ham loaf shaved into thin chips; especially associated with delicatessens and home cooking in Western Pennsylvania.
    • Is there a Western Pennsylvanian who hasn’t eaten Isaly's chipped chopped ham? When you traveled and saw one, you knew they’d have Klondikes and chipped ham...2021 November 21, McMarlin, Shirley, “Isaly's chipped ham, Klondikes celebrated in new historical book”, in TribLive
    • When I went looking for a chipped chopped ham barbecue sandwich last year as a new Pittsburgher, it was frustratingly hard to find. The classic Pittsburgh sandwich, made with thinly sliced pressed ham cooked in barbecue sauce, is available only at a few places with a long memory.2025 November 17, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Synonyms:
    chipped ham

Synonyms of chipped chopped ham

Origin of chipped chopped ham

From chipped (past participle of chip, referring to being thinly shaved) + chopped (“finely cut”) + ham. The term is strongly associated with the Pittsburgh region of Pennsylvania, where Isaly's delicatessens popularized the product in the mid-20th century.

Questions about chipped chopped ham

What does chipped chopped ham mean?
Chipped chopped ham means a finely ground, processed luncheon meat, typically made of spiced ham loaf shaved into thin chips; especially associated with delicatessens and home cooking in Western Pennsylvania.
What part of speech is chipped chopped ham?
Chipped chopped ham is a noun.

Words near chipped chopped ham in the dictionary

  1. chipped
  2. chipped and charged
  3. chipped at
  4. chipped away
  5. chipped beef
  6. chipped chopped ham
  7. chipped ham
  8. chipped in
  9. chipped into
  10. chipped potato
  11. chipped potatoes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chipped chopped ham (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “chipped chopped ham.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chipped_chopped_ham. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.