chip off the old block

chip

1 [chip] noun, verb, chipped, chip·ping.
noun
1.
a small, slender piece, as of wood, separated by chopping, cutting, or breaking.
2.
a very thin slice or small piece of food, candy, etc.: chocolate chips.
3.
a mark or flaw made by the breaking off or gouging out of a small piece: This glass has a chip.
4.
any of the small round disks, usually of plastic or ivory, used as tokens for money in certain gambling games, as roulette or poker; counter.
5.
Also called microchip. Electronics. a tiny slice of semiconducting material, generally in the shape of a square a few millimeters long, cut from a larger wafer of the material, on which a transistor or an entire integrated circuit is formed. Compare microprocessor.
6.
a small cut or uncut piece of a diamond or crystal.
7.
anything trivial or worthless.
8.
something dried up or without flavor.
9.
a piece of dried dung: buffalo chips.
10.
wood, straw, etc., in thin strips for weaving into hats, baskets, etc.
11.
Golf. chip shot.
12.
Tennis. a softly sliced return shot with heavy backspin.
13.
the strip of material removed by a recording stylus as it cuts the grooves in a record.
14.
chips, Chiefly British. French fries.
verb (used with object)
15.
to hew or cut with an ax, chisel, etc.
16.
to cut, break off, or gouge out (bits or fragments): He chipped a few pieces of ice from the large cube.
17.
to disfigure by breaking off a fragment: to chip the edge of a saucer.
18.
to shape or produce by cutting or flaking away pieces: to chip a figure out of wood.
19.
Games. to bet by means of chips, as in poker.
20.
Tennis. to slice (a ball) on a return shot, causing it to have heavy backspin.
21.
Slang. to take (a narcotic drug) occasionally, especially only in sufficient quantity to achieve a mild euphoria.
22.
Chiefly British Sports. to hit or kick (a ball) a short distance forward.
23.
British Slang. to jeer or criticize severely; deride; taunt.
24.
Australian. to hoe; harrow.
00:10
Chip off the old block is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
verb (used without object)
25.
to break off in small pieces.
26.
Golf. to make a chip shot.
Verb phrases
27.
chip in,
a.
to contribute money or assistance; participate.
b.
Games. to bet a chip or chips, as in poker.
c.
to interrupt a conversation to say something; butt in: We all chipped in with our suggestions for the reunion.
Idioms
28.
chip off the old block, a person who resembles one parent in appearance or behavior: His son is just a chip off the old block.
29.
chip on one's shoulder, a disposition to quarrel: You will never make friends if you go around with a chip on your shoulder.
30.
in the chips, Slang. wealthy; rich: Don't look down on your old friends now that you're in the chips.
31.
when the chips are down, in a discouraging or disadvantageous situation; in bad or pressing times: When the chips are down he proves to be a loyal friend.
Origin:
1300–50; (noun) Middle English chip (compare Old English cipp plowshare, beam, i.e., piece cut off); (v.) late Middle English chippen (compare Old English -cippian in forcippian to cut off); akin to Middle Low German, Middle Dutch kippen to chip eggs, hatch

Related forms
chip·pa·ble, adjective
un·chip·pa·ble, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
chip (tʃɪp) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
1.  a small piece removed by chopping, cutting, or breaking
2.  a mark left after a small piece has been chopped, cut, or broken off something
3.  (in some games) a counter used to represent money
4.  a thin strip of potato fried in deep fat
5.  (US), (Canadian) Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): crisp a very thin slice of potato fried and eaten cold as a snack
6.  a small piece or thin slice of food
7.  sport a shot, kick, etc, lofted into the air, esp over an obstacle or an opposing player's head, and travelling only a short distance
8.  electronics a tiny wafer of semiconductor material, such as silicon, processed to form a type of integrated circuit or component such as a transistor
9.  a thin strip of wood or straw used for making woven hats, baskets, etc
10.  (NZ) a container for soft fruit, made of thin sheets of wood; punnet
11.  informal (Brit) cheap as chips inexpensive; good value
12.  informal chip off the old block a person who resembles one of his or her parents in behaviour
13.  informal have a chip on one's shoulder to be aggressively sensitive about a particular thing or bear a grudge
14.  informal (Brit) have had one's chips to be defeated, condemned to die, killed, etc
15.  informal when the chips are down at a time of crisis or testing
 
—vb , chips, chipping, chipped
16.  to break small pieces from or become broken off in small pieces: will the paint chip?
17.  (tr) to break or cut into small pieces: to chip ice
18.  (tr) to shape by chipping
19.  sport to strike or kick (a ball) in a high arc
 
[Old English cipp (n), cippian (vb), of obscure origin]
 
'chipper
 
—n

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

chip
O.E. forcippian "to pare away by cutting," v. form of cipp "small piece of wood," perhaps from PIE base *keipo- "sharp post" (cf. Du. kip "small strip of wood," L. cippus "post, stake, beam"). Sense of "break off fragments" is 18c. Noun is attested by early 14c.; meaning "counter used in a game of chance"
is first recorded 1840; electronics sense is from 1962. Used for thin slices of foodstuffs (originally fruit) since 1769; specific ref. to potatoes is from 1859 (in "A Tale of Two Cities"); potato chip is attested by 1886. Meaning "piece of dried dung" first attested 1846. To chip in "contribute" (1861) may come from card-playing. Potato chip is 1859. Chip of the old block is used by Milton (1642); earlier form was chip of the same block (1621); more common modern phrase with off in place of of is early 20c. To have a chip on one's shoulder is from at least 1820s, U.S., from the custom of a boy determined to fight putting a chip on his shoulder and defying another to knock it off. Chip in "contribute" is 1861, Amer.Eng.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
chip   (chĭp)  Pronunciation Key 
See integrated circuit.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

chip off the old block definition


An expression used of people who closely resemble their parents in some way: “Mark just won the same sailboat race his father won twenty years ago; he's a chip off the old block.”

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

chip definition


  1. n.
    a bargaining chip. : He used his inside info as a chip.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
Abbreviations & Acronyms
CHIP
Community Health Information Partnerships
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

chip off the old block

A person who closely resembles a parent, as in Like her mother, Karen has very little patiencea chip off the old block. This term, with its analogy to a chip of stone or wood that closely resembles the larger block it was cut from, dates from ancient times (Theocritus, Idyls, c. 270 b.c.). In English it was already a proverb by the 17th century, then often put as chip of the old block.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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