Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to kill.

1757		Foote Author in Works (1799) I 148: The pleasure of this play, like hunting, does not consist in immediately chopping the prey.
1968		A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 307: You say Rawcliffe, brad? Rawcliffe the jarvey you bid to chop?
1977		(con. 1960s) Nicholson & Smith Spend, Spend, Spend (1978) 154: I’m going to end it, I’m going to chop myself.

2. to defraud.

1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 10: A jolly tar, just come from far, / And fitted for a chopping.
1907		Wenatchee Dly World (WA) 30 Sept. 4/2: He began to Roar somewhat and talk about chopping on the all-night Seances.

3. (US) to stop another from doing or to stop what one is doing.

1884		Dly Teleg. & Courier 10 Mar. 2/6: The filly has been allowed a rest [...] and if he [sic] is not chopped at the start he [sic] might be busy at the finish.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 43: Chop the laughin’.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 20: I got swelled up and bought wine like a horse owner. Johnny was shaking his head and motioning for me to chop, but what cared I?
1909		F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 90: Chop – To stop.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 49: There is but one thing for a Wise Ike to do and that is to Chop on the Festivities and beat it to a Rest Cure.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 29: We’ll chop the tobacco and booze right here.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 113: [He] decided to chop on the Money-Grubbing.
1927		(con. 1918) J. Stevens Mattock 286: Hell, chop the old guff, and let’s haul feet out of here.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 44/1: Chop, v. [...] 3. To stop by force, as a victim screaming an alarm. [...] to cease. ‘Chop the cracks (pointed remarks). Half the ghees (people) in the joint are riding the earie (listening).’.

4. (US, also chop up) to punch.

[1876		‘Some Road Slang Terms’ in Malet Annals of the Road 389: 1. Of Horses Chopping...Hitting a horse with the whip on the thigh].
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 18 May 4/5: Whitelaw sent his chopped-up foe to the boards for the requisite number of seconds.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 228: That’s from the kidney blows [...] ’Most every clench, like clockwork, down he’d chop one on me. It got so sore I was wincin’.

5. (orig. US Und., also chop down) to shoot, esp. with an automatic weapon.

1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 1: More than a dozen gangsters had been chopped down with machine-gun bullets.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 274: One of the old mob [...] was chopped right outside on the corner.
1969		D. Pendleton Executioner (1973) 189: You knew he was about to gun me down. Why didn’t you wait another second? Then you could have chopped him and had a clear field.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 118: Why didn’t you just chop the bastard?
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 123: Thought I might get chopped more likely.
2005		Guardian Society 13 July 🌐 People are chopping and shooting people.

6. to hang someone.

1950

P. Tempest Lag’s Lex. 44: chop, to. To hang. Probably dates from the days of the executioner’s axe.

7. (orig. US Und., also chop down) to stab, to slash.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 44/1: Chop, v. To cut a person with a chiv.
1962		A. La Guma Walk in the Night (1968) 55: ‘God, I’ll chop you,’ Willieboy shouted and reached for his jacket pocket. ‘Watch out for his knife,’ Gipsy shouted.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Chop down - attack by stabbing.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 72: A [...] git chopped n fuckin laid oot.

8. (orig. US) to customize a car, or motorcycle, i.e. one ‘chops’ it down in size.

1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 8: Chop it? No. I like the lines. Besides it ain’t strictly for racing.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 14: Packing their ‘mamas’ behind them on big ‘chopped hogs’.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 16: On their massive chopped thundering Harley 74’s.
1978		T. O’Brien Going After Cacciato (1980) 232: An Impala, 1964 [...] Fender skirts, mudflaps, chopped and channelled, leopard-skin upholstery.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 13: His car was a full dress taco wagon: chopped, channeled, lowered.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 118: [He] kicked his chopped Harley superhog into screaming life.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 191: One cholo-chopped Chevy van, replete with flame paint job.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 154: A chopped-and-dropped Mercedes-Benz SUV.

9. (drugs) to adulterate, usu. a drug in powder form by chopping it up with a non-narcotic substance.

1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 179: He had [...] nearly a kilo, of pure stuff, and if he had to get his get-away money by chopping it, he’d chop it.
1971		Illinois Legislative Investigating Committee Drug Crisis in Spears (1986).
1996		Jay-Z ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ 🎵 Gram choppin, police van dockin, D’s at my doors knockin.
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 44: Just take a credit card and chop it.

10. (also chop it off) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1963		N. Dunn Up the Junction 15: They reckon he was choppin’ it off with his last assistant.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 12: Very straight, square birds were downing Es at a rate of knots and getting chopped, fucked in khazis.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 99: Like seeing the missus get chopped, don’t I!!

11. (US black, also chop low) to attack someone verbally, to discredit someone, to have the last word.

1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 67: Don’t you chop low on my friends.
1972		W. Labov in Kochman Rappin’ & Stylin’ Out 274: ‘Woofing’ is common in Philadelphia and elsewhere, ‘joning’ in Washington, ‘signifying’ in Chicago, ‘screaming’ in Harrisburg, and, on the West Coast, such general terms as ‘cutting,’ ‘capping,’ or ‘chopping’.
1972		Dly Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, NC) 10 Oct. 6/4: At night we’d sit around and ‘chop’ each other (‘Your mother’s like a pool table [...] Your father has to rub his stick before he can cram his balls into her!’).
1977		Rolling Stone 22 Sept. 43: He knew, man, that we loved him, and he knew that we weren’t going to chop him up or anything.

12. (US black) to walk.

1967

J. Horton ‘Time and cool people’ in Trans-action 4 11/1: Style [...] may be expressed in the loose walk, the jivey or dancing walk, the slow, cool walk, the way one ‘chops’ or ‘makes it’ down the street.