1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 4 Sept., p. 9, col. 2. I was glad to get
it off to a chopper at last.... Dr. Letheby explained that a
chopper is the trade term for a sausage maker.
To have a chopper, or Button, on, phr. (printers’).—To be miserable;
‘down in the dumps’ or in a fit of the ‘blues.’
Chopping, adj. (old).—Sexually forward; said of girls unduly ‘vain and
amatorious.’ [An extension in sense of chopping = strapping, thumping,
bouncing, etc.] The French express it by avoir la cuisse gaie.
Chopping-Block, subs. (pugilistic).—A man like a butcher’s block, i.e.,
who takes an immense amount of ‘punishment’ in a fight without the
science or the strength to return it.
Chops. To lick the chops, phr. (common).—See quots. [Chops = the mouth,
lips, jaws.] Fr., les jaffes.
1655. Fellowes, tr., Milton’s 2nd Defence, 227. The sight of this
egg ... caused our monarchy-men ... to lick their chops. [m.]
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 6, Manager. Of course then the Tories will
take office? Punch. I rayther suspect they will. Have they not been
licking their chops for ten years outside the Treasury door while
the sneaking Whigs were helping themselves to all the fat tit-bits
within?
Down in the Chops or mouth, phr. (colloquial).—Sad, melancholy. Cf., To
have a chopper on.
1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 28, ed. 1854. ‘Vy, Paul,
my kid, you looks down in the chops; cheer up, care killed a cat.’
1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable. Down in the chops—i.e., down in the
mouth; in a melancholy state; with the mouth drawn down. Chop or
chap is Saxon for mouth; we still say a pig’s chap.
Chop the Whiners, 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.
Chortle, verb (popular).—To chuckle; to laugh in one’s sleeve; to
‘snort.’ [Introduced by Lewis Carrol in Through the Looking Glass.—See
quot.]
1872. Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass, i. ‘O frabjous day!
Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, xxxii., 242. It makes the
cynic and the worldly-minded man to chuckle and chortle with an
open joy.
1887. Athenæum, 3 Dec., p. 751, col. 1. A means of exciting cynical
chortling.
1888. Daily News, 10 Jan., p. 5, col. 2. So may chortle the
Anthropophagi. [m.]
Chosen Twelve.—See Apostles.
Chouse, subs. (colloquial).—1. A trick; swindle; sham; or ‘sell’
(q.v.). [From chouse, a cheat, trickster, or swindler, through the
verb. The derivation is thus discussed and weighed by Dr. Murray: ‘As
to the origin of the Eng. use, Gifford (1814), in a note on the quot.
from Ben Jonson, says, ‘In 1609, Sir Robt. Shirley sent a messenger or
chiaus to this country, as his agent from the Grand Signior and the
Sophy to transact some preparatory business.’ The latter ‘chiaused the
Turkish and Persian merchants of £4,000,’ and decamped. But no trace of
this incident has yet been found outside of Gifford’s note; it was
unknown to Peter Whalley, a previous editor of Ben Jonson, 1756; also
to Skinner, Henshaw, Dr. Johnson, Todd, and others who discussed the
history of the word. Yet most of these recognised the likeness of
chouse to the Turkish word, which Henshaw even proposed as the etymon
on the ground that the Turkish chiaus ‘is little better than a fool.’
Gifford’s note must therefore be taken with reserve.’] The word is also
used at Eton in this sense, but see sense 2, which is the commoner.
Variously spelt chiaus, chews, showse, ghowse, and chouse.
1610. Ben Jonson, Alchymist, I., ii., 25. ‘D. What do you think of
me? That I am a chiause? Face. What’s that? D. The Turk [who] was
here. As one would say, doe you think I am a Turke?’
1639. Ford, Lady’s Trial, II., i. Gulls, or Moguls, Tag, rag, or
other, hogen-mogen, vanden, Skip-jacks, or chouses.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, I., i., wks. (1713), 343. You are
no better than a chouse, a cheat.
1673. Wycherley, Gent. Danc. Master, III., in wks. (1713), 295. He
a dancing-master, he’s a chouse, a cheat, a meer cheat.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.).