[In ME. found only since the middle of 15th c., but prob. in OE. *cippian: Lye cites forcyppod = ‘præcisus,’ from gloss to Canticum Ezechiæ, where another gloss has forcorfen. EFris. has kippen to cut, and MDu., MLG. kippen to chip eggs, to hatch; implying the existence of at least an OLG. (Saxon) kippan. But the earlier history of the whole group is uncertain; as is also the relation of chip to chap, chop. In actual modern use, chip is in sense 2 used in Scotland = chop; in sense 3 it is treated in Eng. as having the same relation to chop, that tip, drip have to top, drop, i.e., it expresses a slighter and more delicate action.]
† 1. To chip bread: to pare it by cutting away the crust. Obs.
1461–83. in Househ. Ord., 71. Them oweth to chippe bredde, but not too nye the crumme.
1513. Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk., 266. Chyppe your soueraynes brede hote.
1554. Rhodes, Bk. Nurture, ibid. 66. In your offyce of the Pantrye, see that your bread be chipped and squared.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 259. Hee would haue made a good Pantler, hee would haue chipp’d Bread well.
1634. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, Introd. 17. To Furley 4 days chipping bread 00 01 04.
1725. Bailey, Erasm. Colloq., 193. He brings Bread, which the Guests may chip every one for themselves.
1727. Pope, etc. Art Sinking, 113. Uncork the bottle, and chip the bread.
† b. So to chip or chip away the crust. Obs.
1586. Cogan, Haven Health, iv. (1636), 27. The utter crusts above and beneath should be chipped away.
1709. W. King, Cookery, 590. ’Tis ev’n so the butler chips his crust.
2. trans. generally, To hew or cut with an ax or adze, or with strokes from any other cutting tool. (In South of Scotland the proper word for to cut with an ax, to ‘chop.’)
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. v. 34. His mangled Myrmidons. That noselesse, handlesse, hackt and chipt, come to him.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. ii. 57. The sap is white, and the heart red: The heart is used much for dying; therefore we chip off all the white sap, till we come to the heart.
1730. Thomson, Autumn, 82. Industry … Taught him [the savage] to chip the wood.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), s.v. Ax, Chipped with an ax, dolabratus.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 235. The workman … cuts, or rather chips, the pipe into pieces of the requisite size.
1883. Haslam, ‘Yet not I,’ 17. Busy chipping and cutting wood.
3. To break off (by a sharp blow with anything hard) small fragments from wood, stone, or other hard substances (especially from an edge); to reduce or shape by thus removing small portions at a time. (In this sense it is in use a kind of dim. of chop.) a. with the substance as obj.
1859. Handbk. Turning, 9. Do not push them roughly against the wood … or you will spoil their edge, and chip the work.
1872. Ellacombe, Bells of Ch., ix. 260. Chipping and modulating the sound of every bell.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ix. § 1 (1882), 588. Statues were chipped ruthlessly into decency.
b. with the fragments as obj. (with off, from, etc.)
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 539. Coming to the edge of a layer … they have occasionally chipped it off.
1866. Kingsley, Herew., I. vii. 191. Shooting at the castle walls, out of which they chipped several small pieces of stone.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 261. Men who chipped bits of rock and cherished fossils.
c. with the product as obj.: To produce or make by chipping.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xxi. 214. As nice an epitaph as was ever chipped by stone-cutter.
d. intr. (for refl.)
1753. [see CHIPPING vbl. sb. 1.]
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 491. It is extremely brittle, chipping on the smallest fall or shock.
c. 1865. J. Wylde, in Circ. Sc., I. 23/2. This often causes the earthy matter to ‘chip’ off.
† 4. trans. To crack or fissure the surface of; to chap; = CHAP v.1 3. Obs. exc. dial.
1508. Fisher, On Ps. cii. Wks. 148. After the erth be brent, chyned, & chypped by the hete of the sonne.
1580. Lyly, Euphues, 12 b. The beauty [of a fine face] … parched with the Sunnes blaze, and chipped with the Winters blast.
b. intr. (for refl.)
1855. Whitby Gloss., Chip, to chop as the lips or hands in frosty weather.
† 5. intr. Of seeds or buds: To break open, burst, germinate; to break into leaf or blossom.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 124. The rois knoppis … Gan chyp, and kyth thare vernale lippis red.
1681. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 100. When bushes budded, and trees did Chip [note, blossom].
1734. Curteis, in Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 275. I sow the Seed pretty thick, and in forty-eight Hours it will begin to chip.
6. trans. Of chickens, etc.: To crack and break away (the egg-shell) in hatching.
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XV. xcvii. 387. Then had Church-pride chipped Shell.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxv. ‘In comes Rashleigh and chips the shell, and out bangs the wonder amang us.’
1823. Byron, Age Bronze, v. Thou isle!… That saw’st the unfledged eaglet chip his shell! Ibid. (1823), Island, IV. ii. The young turtle, crawling from his shell, Steals to the deep … Chipp’d by the beam, a nursling of the day.
b. transf. To crack or break the shell of a nut.
1846. Landor, Exam. Shaks., Wks. 1846, II. 273. The little tame squirrel that chippeth his nuts.
7. Australia. To harrow (ground). Cf. CHOP.
1798–1802. D. Collins, N.S. Wales, 24. The following prices of labour were now established: Chipping fresh ground, 12s. 3d. per acre; Chipping in wheat, 7s.
1818. J. Holt, in Mem. (1838), II. 91. Twenty shillings per acre for breaking the ground … and ten for chipping (the name used in New South Wales for harrowing).
8. Chip in (colloq.): to interpose smartly, ‘cut in.’ Cf. CHOP in.
c. 1870. Bret Harte, In the Tunnel. Just you chip in, Say you knew Flynn.
1888. Star, 12 Dec., 3/3. Justice Smith here chipped in with the remark that counsel … had not curtailed their cross-examination.
¶ 9. To chip at: to aim a blow at, peck at, hit at, pick a quarrel with. [Of uncertain position: possibly related to next in sense c.]
1803. Month. Mag., XIV. 326. Geddes … has translated more of it … in a manner which it is the utmost of erudition to chip at, and of taste to criticize.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 18 Feb. 7/1. So direct were his allusions to us that a prisoner whispered to me, ‘He is chipping at you, Burns.’
