Forms: 1 cisil, cisal, cysel, ceosel, 2 chisel, 4–7 chesel(l, chesylle, chysel, scheselle, 6 chesill, chisil(le, cheasell, 7 chisel, 9 chesil. [OE. cisil, ceosel, cysel, corresp. to OHG. chisil (MHG. kisel, Ger. kiesel, MDu. kēzel):—OTeut. type *kesulo-, *kisilo-, deriv. of *kiso-, whence MHG. kis, Ger. kies gravel. As the word is now chiefly dialectal, or retained in place-names, the spelling is unfixed; Chesil and Chisel both occur in place-names. See also CHISEL bran.]

1

  1.  A collective name for small pebbles, such as those of the sea-beach; gravel, shingle. (In early quots. also = a siliceous stone or pebble, with pl.)

2

a. 700.  Epinal Gloss., 461. Glarea, cisil.

3

a. 750.  Corpus Gloss., 975. Glarea, cisilstan.

4

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. vii. 26. Þe ʓetimbrode hys hus ofer sand-ceosel.

5

1160.  Hatton G., ibid. Sand-chisel.

6

c. 1315.  Shoreham, 137. For chisel, gravel [printed gravet], stones harde.

7

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xxii. (1495), 560. A lytyll stone that hyghte Scrupulus, chesell: and is moost rough and sharpe … yf it fall betwene a mannes fote and the shoo it greuith full sore.

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a. 1400.  Cov. Myst. (1841), 56. As sond in the se … Hath cheselys many unnumerabylle.

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c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 76. Chysel, or grauel, acerua [arena P.] sabulum.

10

1538.  Leland, Itin., III. 72. To trench the Chisil hard by Seton Toun, and ther to let in the Se.

11

1567.  Turberv., in Chalmers, Eng. Poets, II. 644. On the sandie Cheasell.

12

c. 1630.  Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 28 (1811), 34. A port … now choaked with chisel and sands. Ibid., § 156. 173. Seperated from the sea by a ridge of chesell sand and gravel.

13

  b.  attrib. and Comb., as chesil-stone; Chesil-Bank or Beach († the Chesil): see quot. Chesil Spar, a mineral.

14

c. 1475.  Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 769. Hec gloria, a schesellestone.

15

1577.  Harrison, Descr. Brit., in Holinshed, Chron., xii. 58. The head or point of the Chesill lieng north-west, which stretcheth vp from thence, about seauen miles, as a maine narrow banke.

16

1835.  E. Pearse, in Bray, Descr. Devon, III. xxxix. 255. Specimens of chesel spar beautifully coloured.

17

1837.  Penny Cycl., IX. 93/1. The island has one village, Chesilton, at the commencement of the Chesil bank…. Portland … has long been united to [the main land] by the Chesil Bank, one of the longest and most extraordinary ridges of pebbles in Europe.

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