▪ I. chisel, n.1
(tʃɪzəl)
Forms: 4–6 chisell, chesell, 5 chysel, chesel(e, cheselle, sceselle, scheselle, 5–6 chesyl(le, 6 chyssell, chesil(l, chesal, 6–8 chizel(l, 7 chissell, chessill, chizil, chizzell, (cheezil, chitzell), 8 chessel, 7–9 chissel, chizzel, 4– chisel.
[a. ONF. chisel (= central OF. cisel, in mod.F. ciseau, = OPr. cisel, Cat. cisell, Sp. ci-n-cel, Pg. ci-n-zel chisel):—late L. type cīsell-um dim. f. *cisum = cæsum, f. cædĕre to cut: cf. L. cīsorium cutting tool; see scissors.
It. cesello points to L. *cæsellum, but It. has also derivatives of the *cis-um type. See Gröber in Archiv f. Lat. Lexicog. u. Gram. I. 546.]
1. a. A cutting tool of iron or steel with the cutting face transverse to the axis, and more or less abruptly bevelled on one or both sides; used for cutting wood, metal, or stone, and worked either by pressure, or by the blows of a mallet or hammer.
The ordinary carpenter's chisel has a wooden handle, and a plane face at right angles to the axis, bevelled on one side only; most of the stone-cutters' chisels are bevelled on both sides (or rarely on four sides); some chisels, as the gouge, have the plane of the face curved; others, used in turning, have the edge concave or convex.
| 1382 Wyclif Job xix. 24 Who ȝiueth to me, that my woordis be writen?..or with a chisell thei be grauen in flint? c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶344 But there is also costlewe furrynge in hir gownes, so muche pownsonynge of chisel [Harl. chesellis, Selden cheseles] to maken holes, so muche daggynge of sheres. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 76/1 Chysell, instrument, celtis. 1483 Cath. Angl. 64/1 A Cheselle, celtis, celium, scalprum. a 1500 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 807 Hic cunius, a sceselle. Hec seltis, a scheselle. 1539 Cranmer Bible Pref., As mallettes..chesylles, axes, and hatchettes be the tooles of theyr occupacyon. a 1577 Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. (1633) 21 The Chessill and Gowge of the carpenter. 1580 Baret Alv. C 438 A Chesill, celtis. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1247 The Lacedæmonians.. caused the said Epigram to be cut out with a chizzel. 1618 Bolton Florus iv. x. (1636) 312 The silver which hee had in the army was every where chipt with chizils. 1669 Boyle Contn. New Exp. i. (1682) 187 Fragments struck off from it with a Chizel and a Hammer. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 85. §10 If our divines and physicians were taught the lathe and the chizzel. 1841–71 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (1871) 829 Such teeth are, in fact, chisels of most admirable construction. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Stonehenge Wks. (Bohn) II. 124 On almost every stone we found the marks of the mineralogist's hammer and chisel. |
b. esp. as the sculptor's tool.
| 1631 Shakes. Wint. T. v. iii. 78 What fine Chizzell Could euer yet cut breath? 1753 Hogarth Anal. Beauty x. 61 The most exquisite turns of the chissel in the hands of a master. 1784 Cowper Task i. 705 Nor does the chissel occupy alone The pow'rs of sculpture, but the style as much. 1825 Macaulay Milton, Ess. (1851) I. 11 [The poetry] of Dante is picturesque indeed beyond any that ever was written. Its effect approaches to that produced by the pencil or the chisel. 1859 Macm. Mag. Nov. 35 The Chisel, the architect's and sculptor's lithographic pen. |
c. With various defining words prefixed, as firmer chisel, mortise chisel, round chisel, etc., cold chisel, a strong chisel entirely of iron or steel highly tempered, so as to cut cold iron (F. ciseau à froid, so called in contradistinction to the ciseau à chaud, or blacksmith's chisel for cutting hot iron, which, as it becomes itself hot in the process, is held by a withe or other temporary handle).
| 1662 Evelyn Sculptura 5 Some round cheezil or lathe perhaps it was. 1699 W. Dampier Voy. an. 1687 (R.) It was one man's work to be all day cutting out bars of iron into small pieces with a cold chisel. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 239 The Firmer Chisel is a thin broad chisel, with the sides parallel to a certain length, and then tapering, so as to become much narrower towards the shoulder. Ibid., Paring chisel. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. §1. 20 Some cold chissels, a screw driver..cutting chissels. |
d. A surgical instrument of like make and use, for cutting bone. So chisel-osteotome, a chisel for dividing the bones in osteotomy.
| 1685 J. Cooke Marrow Chirurg. IV. ii. iv. Fingers and Toes..may be removed either by fit Chizels or cutting-Mallets. 1871 T. Holmes Syst. Surgery (ed. 2) V. 1076 Sets of bone-cutting forceps and chisels. 1883 ― (ed. 3) III. 825 With Maunder's chisel- ‘osteotome’ there is less chance of disturbing the soft parts. |
† 2. ? A paint-brush. Obs.
| a 1500 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 571 Celeps, a chesell to peynte wyth. [Cf. Cath. Angl., A Brusch for paynterys, celeps.] |
3. U.S. colloq. phr. full chisel: at full speed, ‘full drive’.
| 1837–40 Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 95 The long shanks of a bittern..a drivin away like mad full chizel arter a frog. 1878 Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. ix. 76 Then he'd turn and run up the narrow way, full chisel. |
4. attrib. a. Resembling a chisel, chisel-shaped.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 58 The siluer scalit fyschis..With fynnys schinand..And chesal [1874 chyssell] talis. |
b. spec. Designating a type of shoe with a squared toe.
| 1961 New Statesman 26 May 830/1 Where I live, the latest is an Italian-styled navy blue double-breasted suit, and chisel shoes. 1962 Guardian 31 July 3/2 He stands out..like a continental chiseltoe in a row of sensible Northampton brogues. 1969 New Yorker 11 Oct. 9 (Advt.), The shoe that fits the mood is the chisel toe slip-on. |
5. Comb., as chisel-edge, chisel-mark; chisel-cut, chisel-like, chisel-pointed, chisel-shaped adjs.; chisel-bone, the one half of the lower jaw of the pike (fish); chisel-draft, a flat line, of the breadth of the chisel, cut on the edges of a stone which is to be dressed, to mark the level of the plane of the intended surface; chisel end, head, an end or head shaped or sharpened like a chisel; chisel-mouth U.S. = quinnat; chisel-tooth, a name given to the incisor teeth of rodent animals.
| a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts 214 Batrachomyomachia..neatly described upon the *Chizel Bone of a large Pike's Jaw. |
| 1864 Boutell Heraldry Hist. & Pop. xxx. (ed. 3) 449 Able to read dates in *chisel-cut mouldings. |
| 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. 261 (note) Driving a fair *chissel draft across the joints. |
| 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 194 The *chisel end of the punner bar. 1908 Animal Managem. 241 The ‘*chisel’ head or sharp portion [of the frost nail] to remain above the [horse-]shoe. |
| 1849 Sk. Nat. Hist. Mammalia IV. 83 When any unnecessary branches project inward, they cut them off with their *chisel-like teeth. |
| 1863 A. Ramsay Phys. Geog. (1878) 612 The very *chisel-marks of the men who built the castle. |
| 1889 [see Chinook b]. 1896 Jordan & Evermann Fishes N. Amer. i. 207 Acrocheilus, Agassiz. (*Chisel-mouths.) 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., Chisel-mouth, a cyprinoid fish, Acrocheilus alutaceus, found in the lower Columbia river and its tributaries, as far up as Shoshone and Spokane Falls. Also called chiselmouth jack. |
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. (1807) I. 9 The Kentish turnwrest-plough with a *chisel-pointed share. |
| 1849 Sk. Nat. Hist. Mammalia IV. 8 [Incisors] with sharp *chisel-shaped edges. |
| 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. IV. 906/1 The long and large incisors of the Rodents have been termed..*Chisel-teeth. |
▪ II. chisel, n.2
another form of chesil, gravel.
▪ III. chisel, chissel, n.3
(ˈtʃɪz(ə)l, ˈtʃɪs(ə)l)
Forms: 7 chisel(l, cheasil, chizell, chesill, 8 chizzil, 7, 9 chissell, chizzel(l.
[The same word as chesil, chisel n.2 gravel, applied to bran from its coarse gritty character.]
Bran (called in some localities ‘sharps’); sometimes also applied to the coarsest flour in which some of the bran is left, ‘whole meal’.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 95 [They eat] Grass, Oats, Cheasil, Hay, and Bread. Ibid. 198 Mix goats bloud with chisel steept in broath. 1617 Markham Caval. v. 8 Common horse-bread..made of ordinarie Chissell, or branne. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 105. §1 Chizell..which, hereaboutes, is called treate, in the South-country, branne. 1674 Ray S. & E. Country Wds. 61 Chizzell, bran. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 470 Coarse bread made of chesill. 1788 W. Marshall E. Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Chizzil, sb. bran (the common term). 1855 Whitby Gloss., Chizzel, bran, wheat skins from refining flour. 1877 Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss., Chissells, the coarsest kind of flour. 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss., When you get your corn grun, first comes the bran, then the chisel, then the fine flour. |
▪ IV. chisel, v.1
(ˈtʃɪzəl)
[f. chisel n.1 which see for forms. Cf. F. ciseler. (Sense 3 is doubtfully connected.)]
1. a. trans. To cut, grave, pare, shape, etc. with a chisel. Often with out.
| 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. iii. 16 A grece there was ychesyled all of stone Out of the rocke. 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 297 The Stones chesseled and made smooth. 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. E iij, With this and a Hammer to strike with, we Chissel the Ore out of Loughs in Pipe Works. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. I. 129 People were at work chiselling several statues. |
b. absol. To work with a chisel.
| 1873 Ouida Pascarel II. 142 In these days no man will be content to chisel humbly. |
2. transf. and fig.
| 1793 Holcroft Lavater's Physiog. xxix. 135 These all modify, repair, and chissel forth the body. 1820 Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 119 It is as if there were some fine art to chisel thought. |
3. colloq. or slang. Also chizzle. To cheat, defraud. to chisel out of: to cheat of.
[History obscure: written evidence wanting. Its use at Winchester Coll. in 1821 is vouched for by the Warden of New College (the Rev. Dr. Sewell), and in 1839 by Rev. C. B. Mount. Mr. H. H. Gibbs says, ‘quite a current word in England in 1835’.]
| 1808 Jamieson, Chizzel, to cheat, to act deceitfully. 1834 C. A. Davis Lett. J. Downing 181 You can chizzle them out of their property. 1848 Bartlett Dict. Amer., To chisel, to cheat, to swindle (comp. To gouge), a Western word..‘have chiselled the people of California out of a million of dollars’. 1848 Illust. Lond. News 1 Apr. 220/3 We aint going to be chizzled out of it. 1856 Smyth (U.S.) Rom. Fam. Coins 245 He muttered something about being ‘chiselled’ in the transaction. 1863 Ouida Held in Bondage (1870) 31, I never can stand quiet and see people trying to chisel me. |
4. intr. To ‘butt in’; to intrude. colloq.
| 1936 M. Franklin All that Swagger (1952) lii. 411 It is considered smart to chisel-in on a married woman now. 1939 Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath 260 Goin' aroun' stirrin' up trouble. Gettin' folks mad. Chiselin' in. 1942 D. Powell Time to be Born (1943) iv. 93 There is something..annoying..in finding neighbours from back home chiselling in on your own exclusive New York. |
▪ V. chisel, chizzel, v.2 Sc.
[f. chessel.]
To press in a chessel or cheese-vat.
| 1820 Blackw. Mag. July 379 (Jam.) Some ewe milk cheese..pressed and chiselled wi' my ain hand. |