subs. (old).—1. A carpenter. Fourbesque equivalents are gangherino and zangarino, whilst the Gaunersprache has Mepaie.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. A nick name for a carpenter.
1851. Chambers’s Papers for the People, No. 52, p. 20. The carpenter, a rough hardy Swede, rejoicing in the name of Burstrome, was not offended in the slightest degree at being called ‘CHIPS’ even by the black cuddy servant!
1883. W. C. RUSSELL, Sailors’ Language, pref., xii. The carpenter is more politely termed CHIPS.
2. (gaming).—Counters used in games of chance. Cf., CHECKS.
1869. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Innocents at Home, ch. ii. Don’t put up another CHIP till I look at my hand.
3. (American).—Cards. [Mr. C. Nordhoff writing to Mr. John Camden Hotten, on 1 May, 1865, states that ‘CHIPS = slang for cards.’]
4. (common).—Money. [This usage is derived through sense 2, and passes naturally to sense 5. (q.v.).]
1877. W. BLACK, Green Pastures and Piccadilly, ch. xlix. You kent fool away your hand and keep the CHIPS.
1885. The Sporting Times, 23 May. ‘The Chorister’s Promise.’ The landlady came and knocked at the door—(Sing Fulham Road), Saying she’d have to clear out, and swore She’d distrain on her wardrobe what was more (Because of the CHIPS she owed).
5. (general).—A sovereign. Used both in sing. and pl.—See quot. under CHIP, sense 3, and Cf., preceding sense.
6. (Wellington College).—A kind of grill, so called from its hardness.
TO HAND IN ONE’S CHIPS, phr. (gamblers’).—To die. [For probable derivation, see CHECKS.]
