Green’s Dictionary of Slang

excellent, first-rate; thus second chop, inferior.

1805		J. Davis Post Captain (1813) 200: She shall be introduced to the first-chop mandarines.
1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan II 80: ‘Tain’t fuss chop;’ quoth a passenger.
1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 48: They [i.e. nutmegs] were all prime, first chop.
1840		Thackeray Paris Sketch Book I 23: The Hotel de Lille, which may be described as a ‘second chop’ Meurice.
1841		F.J. Bellew ‘Memoirs of a Griffin’ in Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register Apr. 246: ‘Good marning, Sar,’ said one (it was near sunset), ostentatiously displaying his first chop English [...] and pressing his right palm somewhat gracefully to his forehead.
1843		R. Carlton New Purchase II 13: That speedy and elegant style in which young ladies copy maps at first chop boarding schools!
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 July 3/3: His little hatchet shaped mug [...] conveyed the idea of a first chop turnip-splitter.
1854		Thackeray Newcomes I 37: ‘As for poetry, I hate poetry.’ ‘Pens is not first-chop,’ says Warrington.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 July 76/2: I've heard that the climate's first chop, chop, / l’ve heard that the climate’s first chop.
1861		Hills & Plains I 112: ‘First chop turn-out this [...] Old Ochter must have been rich, faith!’.
1862		J.A. Hardwick ‘The London Scamp’ Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 49: Not that I’m up to any dodges – not I: or I should n’t tog up in this style, but come out, first chop, on the cheap, by swindling the tailor!
a.1872		N.Y. Times in ‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It (1872) 47: In addition to all that ordinarily makes up a first-chop dinner, had we not our antelope steak [etc.].
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 6/4: A party of local sportsmen had stayed over night at Mann’s farmhouse, and found his whiskey and hospitality both first chop – especially the whiskey.
1888		A. Trumble Mott Street Poker Club 19: ‘Him velly funny thing, him jack-pot.’ ‘Him velly fust chop when you catchee calds’.
1888		Kipling ‘The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows’ in Plain Tales from Hills (1889) 273: He tells everywhere that he keeps a ‘first-chop’ house.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 199: If anything turned up that was real first chop, they could always find two or three more young fellows that would stand a flutter.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Aug. 17/2: The hard-headed ‘Pendragon’ [...] says [...] it is pleasant to set Stanbury’s act in contrast to ‘the blowing and the gas which in Australia go, as a rule, hand-in-hand with – not incompetency and dufferism, as with us, but with real right-down, first-chop talent, courage and ability.’.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 9 Aug. 5/1: At the Aquarium everything was of course first chop [...] for nothing passes muster here that not the best of its kind obtainable.
1897		R. Marsh Beetle 75: A first chop specimen of a low-down idiot.
1909		Gem 23 Jan. 9: I kinder reckoned all along I’d give Buck a first-chop English education.
1907		Lone Hand (Sydney) Aug. 457/1: ‘I’m a journalist, and if this is the first-chop newspaper I take it for that ought to be enough’.
1911		Gem 4 Nov. 7: ‘First chop!’ said Herries.
1945		(con. WWI) J.P. Marquand ‘Good Morning, Major!’ in Mason Fighting American (1945) 434: You second-chop shavetail!
1947		K. Amis letter 20 Mar. in Leader (2000) 119: Pope and Wordsworth seem to me to be FIRST-CHOP compared with the others.
1950		R. Starnes Another Mug For the Bier 133: The [...] fountain that spent the whole night bubbling with imported champagne of the very first chop.