1871. Sheffield Telegraph, April. West African (New Calabar) slang
for cannibalistic practice. He’s chopped, i.e., he is eaten.
Chop and change, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Ups and downs; vicissitudes;
changes of fortune.
1759–67. Sterne, Tristam Shandy [ed. 1772], I., ch. xi. [Surnames]
which, in a course of years, have generally undergone as many chops
and changes as their owners.
1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, xvi. At last we were all arranged
... although there were several chops and changes about until the
order of precedence could be correctly observed.
1845. Hood, To Kitchener, iii. Like Fortune, full of chops and
changes.
1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis, III., p. 423. I have heard of all
that has happened, and all the chops and changes that have taken
place during my absence.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., 238. The accounts
of such transactions for a series of years, with all their chops
and changes.
Verbal phr., trs. and intrs.—To barter; buy and sell; exchange; change
tactics; veer frequently from one side to the other; vacillate, etc.
1485. Digby Myst. (1882), v., 641. I ... choppe and chaunge with
Symonye, and take large yiftes. [m.]
1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in wks. II., 115. To mangle my
sentences, hack my arguments, chopp and change my phrases.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, wks. V. (1713), 431. We have
chop’d and chang’d, and hid our Christina’s so long, and often,
that at last, we have drawn each of us our own?
1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Chop Church, changing of one Church for
another.
1883. Principal Shairp, in Good Words, Jan., p. 27. The politicians
seemed bent on making the Church a tool which they might chop and
change as the political wind blew.
First chop, second chop, etc. (q.v.).
Chop-Chop, adv. (pidgin).—Immediately; quickly.
1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ch. ii. ‘Chow-chow is not fish, but
food,’ explained Conway, laughing, ‘and chop-chop only means
directly.’
Chopper or Chopping Blow, subs. (pugilistic).—1. See quotation. For
synonyms, see Dig, Bang, and Wipe.
1819. Thos. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, pref., p. 30. A
chopper is a blow, struck on the face with the back of the hand.
Mendoza claims the honour of its invention, but unjustly; he
certainly revived, and considerably improved it. It was practised
long before our time—Broughton occasionally used it; and Slack, it
also appears, struck the chopper in giving the return in many of
his battles.