▪ I. chopper1
(ˈtʃɒpə(r))
[f. chop v.1 + -er1.]
1. a. One who chops or cuts into pieces.
| 1552 Huloet, Chopper, truncator. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 342 Call me Pantler, and Bread-chopper. 1694 Acc. Sev. Late Voy. ii. vii. (1711) 173 One of them cuts the soft and tough Fat into small pieces with a long Knife; this Man they call the Chopper. 1883 Harper's Mag. Jan. 199 ‘The..domestic sound’ of the wood-chopper's axe. |
b. U.S. Lumber-trade. A workman who fells and lops the trees.
| 1827 Cooper Prairie vii. 103 What will the Yankee Choppers say? 1847 Emerson Poems (1857) 204 Fishers and choppers and ploughmen Shall constitute a state. 1880 Lumberman's Gaz. Jan. 28 A Wisconsin lumber-camp is divided into ‘choppers’, ‘sawyers’, and ‘swampers.’ |
c. slang. (See quot.)
| 1865 in Pall Mall G. 4 Sept. 9/2 I was glad to get it off to a ‘chopper’ at last..Dr. Letheby explained that a ‘chopper’ is the trade term for a sausage-maker. |
2. a. An instrument used for cleaving or cutting up: spec. a large-bladed short-handled axe used for cutting up meat, wood, etc.; a butcher's cleaver.
| 1818 Todd Chopper, a butcher's cleaver; a word now used more frequently than cleaver. 1844 Macaulay Barére (Misc. Wks. 1860 II. 160), The long fair hair of handsome aristocrats who had died by the national chopper [the guillotine]. 1884 Manch. Exam. 15 Aug. 4/7 Charged..with..striking it on the head with a chopper. |
b. to get the chopper (see chop n.1 4 f).
3. An agricultural implement for thinning out plants in drills. Used in Great Britain for turnips; in the United States for cotton plants. (Knight Mech. Dict. 1874.)
4. A device for interrupting an electric current, a beam of light, or radiation, at regular intervals; = interrupter b. Also attrib.
| 1929 J. A. Ratcliffe Physical Princ. Wireless iv. 64 Such a device is called a chopper, and usually takes the form of a buzzer contact. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 160/1 Chopper, an interrupter, generally in the form of a rotating commutator. 1950 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LIV. 22/2 For still greater numbers..the gauges are grouped in banks of eight, scanned by a rotating chopper switch. 1955 Sci. Amer. Aug. 64/1 The chopper is a Kerr cell: a glass cell containing a liquid..which in an electric field can transform an entering beam of plane-polarized light into a ‘circularly polarized’ beam. 1962 Gloss. Terms Autom. Data Processing 103 The modulator, which is called a chopper, is often a vibrating mechanical contact or a solid-state electronic switch. 1962 Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors ix. 216 Because of their excellent switching characteristics, transistors make particularly good ‘choppers’ for d.c. to a.c. conversion. |
5. A machine-gun or -gunner. U.S. slang.
| 1929 Harper's Mag. Oct. 535/2 Johnny Hand..had met the ‘chopper’, i.e., machine-gun. 1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 50 Chopper, a machine gun, or the man operating such a weapon with a gang of racketeers or robbers. 1932 E. Wallace When Gangs came to London viii. 65 You remember the shooting of Big Sam Polini? The choppers got him as he came out of mass one morning. 1962 I. Fleming Spy who loved Me xi. 156 There was a mixture of single shots and bursts from the chopper..sorry, sub-machine gun. |
6. A helicopter. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1951 N.Y. Herald Tribune 16 Dec. ii. 5/7 The Korean War has added some new words to the American soldier's vocabulary..Chopper: Helicopter. 1952 N.Y. Times Mag. 17 Aug. 16/4 Oil and gas producers use the ‘chopper’ to patrol long and rugged gas and oil pipelines. 1958 Listener 31 July 175/3 A naval helicopter or ‘chopper’ going about its flights and hoverings. |
7. a. A motor-cycle built or adapted for speed and stripped of inessential parts; spec. one with raised handlebars and front-wheel fork extended forwards, orig. as used by Hell's Angels. Also loosely, a motor-cycle. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1965 W. Murray in Sat. Even. Post 20 Nov. 37/2 The Angels reduce a machine to its essence, jamming the seats down, stripping away the chrome and extras, replacing standard parts and fittings with improvisations of their own, turning what started out as a ‘garbage wagon’ into a ‘chopper’. 1970 K. Platt Pushbutton Butterfly (1971) iv. 36 The chopper came roaring up and then I saw it [was]..an Angel..riding the big outlaw Harley 74. 1973 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 1 July 6/1 Snarling bikes or ‘choppers’, low, rakish, and tuned for speed. 1977 Economist 17 Dec. 42/2 An Evel Knievel doll on the notorious chopper motor bike. 1985 N.Y. Times 27 Apr. 9/4 Ending up at House of Choppers, a motorcycle repair shop. |
b. (With capital initial.) A proprietary name for a type of child's bicycle, modelled after the design of a ‘chopper’ motor-cycle.
| 1971 Trade Marks Jrnl. 31 Mar. 573/1 Chopper... Bicycles, tricycles and parts included in Class 12... Raleigh Industries Limited, 177, Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham; Manufacturers. 1971 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 22 Oct. 41/3 Long handlebars are only part of the conversion that creates the so-called ‘chopper’. The forks are lengthened and their angle is changed to throw the front wheel further forward. The machines are lightened and decorated, sometimes becoming psychedelic fantasies. 1976 Bridgwater Mercury 21 Dec. 11/1 The Ladies' Auxiliary..has recently presented a chopper-bike and other gifts to Penrose School, Bridgwater. 1978 Watson & Gray Penguin Bk. Bicycle i. 36 The chopper-type bicycle or ‘high-riser’, that freak of modern design. |
▪ II. chopper2
[f. chop v.2 + -er1.]
† a. One who barters or exchanges, esp. a trafficker in ecclesiastical benefices. b. One who chops logic.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 271 Bowthes of Choppers and Chaungers. 1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 37 Those simoniacal choppers and changers, buyers and sellers. 1656 Trapp Comm. 1 Pet. v. 2 Church-choppers and money-changers. 1699 Locke 2nd Reply Bp. Worcester (R.), Such a dangerous chopper of logick. 1875 N. Amer. Rev. CXX. 299 A chopper of Chinese logic. |
▪ III. † chopper3 Obs. rare.
? A ‘chopping’ or strapping boy or child. Cf. chopping a.
| 1605 Camden Rem. (1629) 241 She had brought forth two monsters..such child-choppers, that as soone as euer they were borne, they were able to wage warre with a mighty King. a 1627 Middleton No Wit, No Help ii. i, 'Twould have been A jolly chopper and't have liv'd till this time. |
▪ IV. chopper, n.4 Anglo-Indian.
(ˈtʃɒpə(r))
Also 8 chappor, 9 chupper.
[a. Hindī chhappar thatched roof.]
A thatched roof. Also attrib.
| 1780 Lett. in Hicky Bengal Gaz. 6 May (Y.) Setting fire to Houses by throwing the Tickeea of his Hooka on the Choppers. 1782 Price Observ. 61 (Y.) They might erect their chappor huts in what part of the town they pleased. 1810 T. Williamson E. Indian Vade-Mec. I. 510 (Y.) Chuppers, or grass thatches. c 1813 Mrs. Sherwood Stories Ch. Catech. (1873) 258 (Y.) These cottages had neat choppers. 1834 T. Medwin Angler in Wales I. ix. 164 [White ants] attracted by the lights, descend from the choppers in thousands. |
Comb. chopper-cot [Hindī chhappar khāt], a tent-bed.
| 1807 F. Buchanan E. India II. 92 (Y.) Bedsteads..the best are called Palang, or Chhapar Khat..they have curtains, mattrasses, pillows, and a sheet. c 1813 Mrs. Sherwood Stories Ch. Catech. xviii. 161 A very pretty chopper cot, with curtains, and everything quite complete. |
Hence choppered a., thatched.
| c 1813 Mrs. Sherwood Stories Ch. Catech. xxii. 224 It was thatched, or, as we should call it in this country, choppered. 1834 T. Medwin Angler in Wales I. ix. 141 Bungalows are mud-walled buildings, choppered, or thatched with grass. |