chisel n.
1. a swindler.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Bleak House (1991) 311: There is much reference to Mr. Snagsby whether he means Carrots, or the Colonel, or Gallows, or Young Chisel, or Terrier Tip, or Lanky, or the Brick. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Rockhampton Bull. (Qld) 1 Oct. 3/2: It was but a simple and primitive socioety [...] when men caled each other Addlehead, Baldhead, Barebones, Bitch [...] Chisels, Dolt [...] Fogey [...] Gander [...] Maggot, Mangy, Muff, Muzzy. | |
| ‘A Respectable Young Man’ in Roderick (1972) 270: The landlady — a regular old chisel — gave him notice to leave a vacancy. |
2. (also chizzle) a swindle, a deception.
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Nov. 125/1: [I]n spite of that little chizzle about the pice, you shall find me D. V. a credit to your establishment,. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | in Here’s To Crime in Hamilton Men of the Und. 221: Everything’s chisel in this business. | |
| Happy Like Murderers 185: Making a monkey out of. [...] The chisel. The blag. |
3. (Aus. teen) a shoe style favoured by a sharpie n.2
| (con. 1960s-70s) Top Fellas 19/1: ‘Chisels’, kind of like Points but with the tips chopped off. |
In phrases
(US) cheating, usu. for financial gain.
| Nobody Lives for Ever 37: It would be a cinch to get her to come to L.A. No matter what Jim said, she was strictly on the chisel. | |
| letter 4 June in Harris (1993) 130: He is strictly on the chisel though he has gold and always mooching junk. | |
| Playback 51: He’d be pretty sore if I was on the chisel. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US) one whose lower jaw protrudes.
| Univ. Missourian (Columbia, MO) 25 Sept. 1/2: You, pop-eyed, lop-eared, slab-sided, hollow-headed, flea-bitten, hatchet-faced, chisel-chinned, fungus-grown simpleton. | |
 | in Resp. to PADS 20 [DARE]. | |
| in DARE. | |
| Cotillion 117: Here she was, giving her very all, chisel-chinned and bow-of-legs, her bottom built so close to the earth she literally bounced along. | |
| Wkly World News 2 June 14/1: Chisel-chinned Clint Eastwood denies rumors that he’s about to get hitched to his long-time lady Sondra Locke. | |
| Vegetarian Times Aug. 64: Author William Dufty showed his evolution — from a fat slob with a lecherous smirk to a chisel-chinned Adonis with a thoughtful expression. | |
| Life in the Slipstream n.p.: Kramer was a big, chisel-chinned kid from New Jersey with a finishing kick any sprinter would die for. |