Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a carpenter.

[1546		J. Heywood Proverbs II Ch. vii: Such carpenters, such chips. Quoth she, folke tell].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1805		J. Davis Post Captain (1813) 117: The carpenter [...] came upon deck to acquaint the captain that [...] there were several feet of water in the well [...] ‘Be it so,Mr Chips, [...] say not a word about the matter’.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1824		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Dec. 373/3: Either on Christmas or New Year's Day, according as he can get the chips out of his house, the Half Moon, in Leadenhall Market, will be opened for the reception of company.
1839		(con. 1703) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1840) 5: He’s the very image of his father. Like carpenter, like chips.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes III 284: ‘Chips,’ it must be confessed, has the more lucrative – not to call it, better trade!
1855		Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 Jan. 3/1: [She] had taken up with Mr Chips in expectation of being made Mrs Chips.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1887		S. Watson How They Met – Wops and his Wife 8/1: Chippy has got summat as keeps a man from bein’ down on his luck, ain’t yer, Chips?
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 16: Chips [...] a carpenter.
1898		A.J. Boyd Shellback 25: The carpenter, ‘Chips’ as he is named on board ship.
1904		Kipling ‘The Bonds of Discipline’ in Traffics and Discoveries 58: Chip’s reserve o’ wood an’ timber, which Chips ’ad stole at our last refit, needed restowin’.
1917		W. Muir Observations of Orderly 229: A few other slang words which I have come across in the hospital, and which seem to me to bear the mark of the old army as distinct from the new are: [...] ‘chips,’ the pioneer sergeant (carpenter).
1925		Yorks. Eve. Post 17 Oct. 5/2: Our whiskered old Chips loafing on his carpenter’s bench.
1933		(ref. to 1890–1910) L.G.D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (1951) 368: Chips – Nickname for a station carpenter.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1946		R. Rivett Behind Bamboo 395/2: Chips, carpenter.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 388: Certain nicknames seem to be semi-traditional [...] the wood-work teacher is ‘Chips’.