Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gall, cheek, outrageousness, audacity, bravado, nerve, courage.

1883		Amer. Hebrew 1 June 30/1: My children, there is one word in the Hebrew language, which, often used in common conversation, is most expressive for the idea that it seeks to convey. This word I mean is the word Chutzpa, which word, no doubt, is not foreign to your ears.
1886		Sporting Times 27 Mar. 2/5: How’s this for chutzpa?
1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day by Day’ Sporting Times 8 Mar. 3/1: The chutspa of old Ben Goodman, who vhas only asked to the obenin’ ’cos if he ’adn’t a peen he’d a plown the gaff for shpite.
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 52: Vhat vit’ dere guiver an’ dere chutspa, I don’d see ’em no more.
1908		Manchester Courier 6 Mar. 12/2: ‘Chutzpah’ [...] conveys a frame of mind and attitude that only a Jew can exhibit.
1918		N.Y. Trib. 24 Feb. n.p.: How genuine was the spontaneous enthusiasm [...] in which there mingled a dash of characteristic [...] ‘chutzpah’.
1922		Wash. Herald (DC) 3 Oct. 6/3: ‘Chutzpah’ [...] means nerve with a kick.
1945		A. Kober Parm Me 97: But a liddle fella, when he got the chutzpah to be a crook?
1951		(con. 1910s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 245: Oh, the chutzpah – the nerve – of wedding guests!
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 36: Someone had the chutz-pah to ask me.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 101: A combination of charm, insolence, innuendo, instinct, chutzpa, brains, various chicaneries and good lucks.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 126: Henry Talbot could never be accused of lacking energy, nerve, or [...] ‘chutzpah’.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 21 Feb. 6: Tracey’s art-life alas seems to be an amazing act of chutzpah.
2002		A. Huffington at Salon.com 12 Dec. 🌐 But the Kissinger appointment is merely the pointy tip of the chutzpah iceberg.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 151: Those lovely coozes just dropped by with their manager, Mr. Chutzpah.