verbal phr. (thieves’).—To say prayers. [From an extended use of CHOP in the sense of to bandy words—hence to speak + WHINERS (q.v.), prayers.] Fr., manger sa paillasse.
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, p. 2, ed. 1854. I tells you, I vent first to Mother Bussblour’s, who, I knows, CHOPS THE WHINERS morning and evening to the young ladies, and I axes there for a Bible, and she says, says she, ‘I ’as only a Companion to the Halter! but you’ll get a Bible, I think at Master Talkins the cobbler as preaches.’
1857. Punch, 31 Jan.
| For them coves in Guildhall and that blessed Lord Mayor, | |
| Prigs on their four bones should CHOP WHINERS I swear. |
