Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to cheat; thus chisel on, chisel out of v., to defraud; chiseling adj., fraudulent.

1808		Jamieson Etym. Dict. Scot. Lang. n.p.: Chizzel, to cheat, to act deceitfully.
1833		‘Poll Tomkinson’ in Convivialist in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 15: That ever it should go for to come to pass, / To be cxhizzled by you, Poll Tomkinson.
1838		M. Lemon M.P. For The Rotten Borough I v: Though he is a plain man, he cannot chisel you.
1844		J.C. Neal Peter Ploddy and Other Oddities 72: Nobody likes to be chiselled.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 116/1: Chizzle, to gammon, cheat.
1849		Sam Sly 12 May 3/3: [A]fter being all night with C——r, you wanted to chizzle her out of pay?
1850		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 12 May 3/3: Talk of ‘Derby dodges,’ why ‘Chester chisselins’ beats ’em hollow.
1853		N.Y. Clipper 25 June 1/5: Those who bet so largely on the Highland Maid are loud in their denunciations of the manner in which their favorite was ‘chiselled’ out of the purse.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 70/2: I think they chisselled me. I know they got a good deal more than that, for they’d had a good many sixpences and shillings.
1862		‘Cremorne Chizzled’ in Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 91: Two young swells, who much glory did, / In some mean and chizzling tricks.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 31/1: What’s the matter? [...] Enough is the matter when a fellow gets chiselled out of the ‘sugar’ he chances his life for.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 43: Those fellows up there [...] won’t like you any better, when they hear you’ve been chiseling them at poker.
1876		J. Greenwood Low-Life Deeps 309: Just picter my old gal being got over by an old guy with a pack o’ cards, and chisselled out of sixpence.
1882		Bristol Magpie 29 June 7/2: can a stone-mason be said to act fair when he is chiselling?
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 237: I’ll [...] show everybody how the fellow chiseled me out of my money.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 41: Chizzle, to cheat.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 5 Dec. 1/1: Mr Newmann [...] doubtless felt it an honour to have his good horseschiselled out of a race.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Aug. 12/1: There are opportunities vast / For a fellow to chizzle or steal / Or to have a poor man for his shirt.
1939		J. Weidman What’s In It For Me? 189: I spent my days chiselling chisellers and my nights fighting with a black-haired bitch with big bazookas.
1941		J.M. Cain Mildred Pierce (1985) 545: He’s a cheap, chiselling little crook.
1941		N. Davis ‘Don’t Give Your Right Name’ in Goulart (1967) 9: A man can’t even chisel an honest dollar any more.
1951		(con. 1913) Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 71: Variety disclosed that ‘many chiseling vaude managers were giving the road a black eye through sharp practices’.
1952		W. Sheldon Troubling of a Star 186: I need my leave. The seven days Straker chiseled me out of.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 25: Better start walking, you cheap chiseling punk!
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 78: I’m gonna chisel the government like the slick white folks.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 100: Isn’t this town full enough of chiselling bastards without you and me playing silly girls with each other?
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 27: You want your chiseling five hundred back?
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 176: These townie loogans were comprehensively chiselled at market. They were dupes.

2. (also chisel out of) to beg; to pressurize; to obtain by haggling.

1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 Apr. 1/1: By dint of coaxing, wheedling, chizzling, sponging, &c., he generally contrives to get pretty considerably swipy.
1927		H. Yenne ‘Prison Lingo’ in AS II:6 282: Chisel—To beg, or to bum something from another person.
1936		C.R. Cooper Here’s To Crime in Hamilton Men of the Und. 220: They [...] got bummed to death by girls chiseling cigarettes.
1948		J. Evans Halo for Satan (1949) 58: I had muffed one by not hanging onto Lola North until I had chiseled a few facts out of her.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 83: [She] chisels me down to a shopworn twenty to find her brother.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 30: Some of the girls wore school sweaters chiseled from some athlete.
1958		A. King Mine Enemy Grows Older (1959) 21: I had run myself sick and breathless trying to chisel the thirty dollars that I needed for his fee.

3. (also chisel in, chisle) to butt in, to intrude, to insinuate oneself, e.g. on another man’s date [fig. use of sense 1].

1926		J.J. Finerty Criminalese.
1929		Phila. Inquirer 16 June n.p.: ‘To “wolf” or to “chisel” is to poach on what one should consider sacred to one’s neighbor,’ says the writer. ‘Usually it refers to the depradations committed by a stag at a prom at the expense of a man who is entertaining a young lady. To set with the purpose of doing some “high-class wolfing” is a plan with malice aforethought to lure some alluring female from the protection of her official escort.’.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 331/1: chisel, vt. [...] 2. To supplant, to horn in, to crash the gate, to ingratiate one’s self.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 411: Oh, well, it is considered smart to chisel-in on a married woman now. You’re only entitled to a man while you can hold him.
1939		J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath (1951) 175: They’s [...] stirrin’ up trouble. Gettin’ folks mad. Chisellin’ in.
1940		(con. 1918) S.J. Simonsen Soldier Bill 112: Someone else will chisel in and make it appear, they saved the day.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		G. Hamilton Summer Glare 181: He makes me sick, the suave chiselling bastard.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 794: chisle – To intrude.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 345: You just trying to chisel in on my chicken!