Word.ws English Dictionary

chop

UK/t͡ʃɒp//t͡ʃɑp/

chop noun: a cut of meat, often containing a section of a rib.

chop: a cut of meat, often containing a section of a rib
Image: Betsssssy, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

chop (countable and uncountable, plural chops)

  1. A cut of meat, often containing a section of a rib.
    • I only like lamb chops with mint jelly.
    • Of the two fried chops served him for breakfast he ate one and gave Edmund the other, and put a buttered sandwich of bread in his pocket against the accidents of travel.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 18
  2. A blow with an axe, cleaver, or similar implement.
    • It should take just one good chop to fell the sapling.
  3. A blow delivered with the hand rigid and outstretched.
    • A karate chop.
  4. Ocean waves, generally caused by wind, distinguished from swell by being smaller and not lasting as long.
  5. A hand where two or more players have an equal-valued hand, resulting in the chips being shared equally between them.
    • With both players having an ace-high straight, the pot was a chop.
  6. (informal, with-definite-article) Termination, especially from employment; the sack.
    Synonyms:
    axe, pink slip, sack
  7. (Australia, New Zealand) A woodchopping competition.
    • E, C. McsEnulty, who won the chop at the show on Thursday, cut through a foot lying block in 34 seconds[.]1924 October 6, The Examiner, Launceston, page 2, column 6
  8. (dated) A crack or cleft; a chap.
  9. (uncountable) Aircraft turbulence.
  10. (UK, slang) Cocaine.
  11. (Multicultural-London-English, slang) A knife, especially one used as a weapon.
    • It's peak when the mandem spotty
      I gonna need more than a dot-dot
      Capisce, got a problem for swinging this chop?2025 May 1, SH, “Intro” (2:20 from the start)

Verb (1)

chop (third-person singular simple present chops, present participle chopping, simple past and past participle chopped)

  1. (transitive) To cut into pieces with short, vigorous cutting motions.
    • chop wood; chop an onion
  2. (transitive) To sever with an axe or similar implement.
    • Chop off his head.
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To separate or divide.
    • We should chop off some of that department's budget.
  4. (transitive) to give a downward cutting blow or movement, typically with the side of the hand.
  5. (transitive) To hit the ball downward so that it takes a high bounce.
  6. To divide the pot (or tournament prize) between two or more players.
  7. (intransitive) To make a quick, heavy stroke or a series of strokes, with or as with an ax.
  8. (intransitive) To do something suddenly with an unexpected motion; to catch or attempt to seize.
    • Out of a Greediness to get both, he Chops at the Shadow, and Loses the Substance.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
  9. (intransitive) To interrupt; with in or out.
    • This fellow […]interrupted the sermon, even suddenly chopping in.1550, Hugh Latimer, Sermon Preached before King Edward
  10. (Hong-Kong, transitive) To stab.
    • A man had chopped a Sanitary Department coolie to death after an argument about money, Supreme Court was told today.1959 June 8, China Mail, page 10
  11. (transitive) To remove the final character from (a text string).
  12. (slang, transitive) To manipulate or separate out a line of cocaine.
    • He chopped out a fat line.
  13. (slang, transitive) To have sex with.
    • One of my bredrins is saying, what's the oldest ting he can chop?

Verb (2)

chop (third-person singular simple present chops, present participle chopping, simple past and past participle chopped)

  1. (obsolete) To exchange, to barter; to swap.
    • this is not to put down Prelaty, this is but to chop an Episcopacy; this is but to translate the Palace Metropolitan from one kind of dominion into another, this is but an old canonicall sleight of commuting our penance.1644, John Milton, Areopagitica
  2. To chap or crack.
  3. To vary or shift suddenly.
    • The wind chops about.
  4. (obsolete) To twist words.
    • Let not the counsel at the bar chop with the judge.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
  5. To converse, discuss, or speak with another.

Noun (2)

chop (plural chops)

  1. A turn of fortune; change; a vicissitude.

Noun (3)

chop (plural chops)

  1. (in plural) A jaw of an animal.
  2. A movable jaw or cheek, as of a vice.
  3. The land at each side of the mouth of a river, harbour, or channel.
    • East Chop
    • West Chop

Noun (4)

chop (plural chops)

  1. (Brunei, Hong-Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, colloquial) A stamp or seal; a mark, imprint or impression on a document (or other object or material) made by stamping or sealing a design with ink or wax, respectively, or by other methods.
  2. (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, broadly, colloquial) The device used for stamping or sealing, which also contains the design to be imprinted.
  3. A mark indicating nature, quality, or brand.
    • silk of the first chop
  4. A licence or passport that has been sealed.
  5. A complete shipment.
    • a chop of tea

Verb (3)

chop (third-person singular simple present chops, present participle chopping, simple past and past participle chopped)

  1. (Brunei, Hong-Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, colloquial) To stamp or seal (a document); to mark, impress or otherwise place a design or symbol on paper or other material, usually, but not necessarily, to indicate authenticity.
  2. To seal a licence or passport.

Noun (5)

chop (plural chops)

  1. (Internet) An IRC channel operator.
    • IRC supports mechanisms for the enforcement of acceptable behaviour on IRC. Channel operators — "chanops" or "chops" — have access to the /kick command, which throws a specified user out of the given channel.1996, Peter Ludlow, High Noon on the Electronic Frontier, page 404
    Synonyms:
    chanop, op

Verb (4)

chop (third-person singular simple present chops, present participle chopping, simple past and past participle chopped)

  1. (informal) To fly a helicopter or be flown in a helicopter.
    • We chopped back to the base.

Noun (6) capitalized: CHOP

CHOP (countable and uncountable, plural CHOPs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym, uncountable) a chemotherapy regimen used in the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, consisting of Cyclophosphamide, Hydroxydaunorubicin (also called doxorubicin or adriamycin), Oncovin (vincristine) and Prednisone or Prednisolone
  2. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of change of operational control.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: CHOP

CHOP

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
    • […] said study co-leader William H. Peranteau, MD, a pediatric and fetal surgeon in CHOP's Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment.2018 October 8, “Guided by CRISPR, Prenatal Gene Editing Used in Treating Congenital Disease Before Birth”, in R&D Magazine
  2. (abbreviation, acronym, historical) Acronym of Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.
    • In its earliest days, the CHOP had support from some city officials, including Durkan, who at the time described a "block party atmosphere" and referenced the "Summer of Love" in a CNN interview.2021 June 8, Lucas Combos, “A Year After Seattle's CHOP Formed, Some Questions Linger”, in Patch, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2021
    Synonyms:
    CHAZ

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Chop

Chop

  1. (historical) A miskrada in Uzhhorod Raion, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine, established in 1957, disestablished in June 2020.
  2. An urban hromada of Uzhhorod Raion, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine, established in June 2020.
  3. A railway station in Chop, Uzhhorod Raion, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine, opened in December 4, 1872

chop meaning in Tamil, Assamese, Tagalog and Persian

chop in Tamil

to cut into pieces
நறுக்கு naṟukku

chop in Assamese

to cut into pieces
কুটা kuta, থহা thoha, থাহা thaha, কঁচা kõsa

chop in Tagalog

to cut into pieces
hapakin

chop in Persian

to cut into pieces
خرد کردن xord kardan
More languagesFewer languages
chop in Vietnamese
lát, chặt, chém
chop in Myanmar
တုံး tum:

Examples of chop in a sentence

  • Mince tastes really good fried in a pan with some chopped onion and tomato.
  • Mowing the lawn and chopping the weeds topped his to-do list of chores.
  • Now add the diced ham to the mixture, then stir in the chopped celery.

All 40 example sentences with chop

Synonyms of chop

11 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of chop

Forms of chop

Noun
pluralchops
alternative formchap
pluralCHOPs
alternative form (obsolete)chapp
alternative form (obsolete)chope
Verb
third-person singular presentchops
present participlechopping
past participlechopped
pastchopped

Past tense of chop: chopped

Plural of chop: chops

Origin of chop

From Middle English choppen, chappen (“to chop”), of uncertain origin, possibly onomatopoeic (cf. Swedish tjoff), or a variant of chap (“to become cracked”). Cognate with Scots chap (“to chop”). Compare also Saterland Frisian kappe, kapje (“to hack; chop; lop off”), Dutch kappen (“to chop, cut, hew”), German Low German kappen (“to cut off; clip”), German kappen (“to cut; clip”), German dialectal chapfen, kchapfen (“to chop into small pieces”), Albanian copë (“piece, chunk”), Old English *ċippian (in forċippian (“to cut off”)). Perhaps related to chip. Compare French couper (“to chop”), Ancient Greek κόπτω (kóptō, “to strike, cut”), Swedish and Norwegian kapa, kappa, kabba (“to chop/cut (off)”).

Uncertain, perhaps a variant of chap (“cheap”). Compare Middle English copen (“to buy”), Dutch kopen (“to buy”).

From Middle English choppe (“jaw, jawbone”), related to Middle English cheppe (“one side of the jaw, chap”). Perhaps ultimately related to Etymology 1 above.

Words formed from chop

Phrases with chop

21 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with chop

44 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about chop

What does chop mean?
Chop means a cut of meat, often containing a section of a rib.
What is chop in Tamil?
Chop in Tamil is நறுக்கு (naṟukku). See Chop meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is chop?
Chop can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce chop?
Chop is pronounced /t͡ʃɒp/ (UK).
What is the plural of chop?
The plural of chop is chops.

Words near chop in the dictionary

  1. choosings
  2. choosy
  3. choot pattern
  4. choottachi
  5. choottachis
  6. chop
  7. chop and change
  8. chop and chat
  9. chop and drop
  10. chop chop
  11. chop chord

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chop (page history and authors); CHOP (page history and authors); Chop (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-chop.ogg.

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