Nearby Words

chopper

[chop-er] Origin

chop·per

[chop-er]
noun
1.
a person or thing that chops.
2.
a short ax with a large blade, used for cutting up meat, fish, etc.; butcher's cleaver.
3.
a prehistoric implement made by striking flakes off one or both sides of a stone, considered the oldest known worked stone tool.
4.
choppers, Slang. the teeth.
5.
Informal. a helicopter.
EXPAND
6.
Slang. a motorcycle.
7.
a device for interrupting an electric current or a beam of light at regular intervals.
COLLAPSE
verb (used without object)
8.
Informal.
a.
to travel by helicopter: We choppered into midtown from the airport.
b.
to travel by motorcycle.

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Chopper is always a great word to know.
So is hot seat. Does it mean:
a highly uncomfortable or embarrassing situation
inferior or cheap, chintzy

Origin:
1545–55; 1950–55 for def. 5; chop1 + -er1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
chopper (ˈtʃɒpə)
 
n
1.  chiefly (Brit) a small hand axe
2.  a butcher's cleaver
3.  a person or thing that cuts or chops
4.  an informal name for a helicopter
5.  chiefly (Brit) a slang name for penis
6.  See also vibrator a device for periodically interrupting an electric current or beam of radiation to produce a pulsed current or beam
7.  a type of bicycle or motorcycle with very high handlebars and an elongated saddle
8.  (NZ) a child's bicycle
9.  obsolete, slang chiefly (US) a sub-machine-gun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

chopper
1550s, "one who chops," from chop (1). Meaning "helicopter" is from 1951, Korean War military slang; type of stripped-down motorcycle (originally prefered by Hell's Angels) is so called from 1965.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
chopper   (chŏp'ər)  Pronunciation Key 
A crudely flaked, unifacial core tool, especially one associated with the Oldowan stone culture of the early Paleolithic Period.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

chopper definition


  1. n.
    a helicopter. : The chopper that monitors the traffic goes over my house every morning at 6:00.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

chopper

any of several types of transistors having four semiconducting layers and therefore three p-n junctions; the thyristor is a solid-state analogue of the thyratron vacuum tube, and its name derives from the combination of the two words thyratron and transistor. A common form of thyristor is the silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR), used to convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) and widely used as a component of devices that control motor speeds, liquid levels, temperatures, and pressures.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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