Forms: 4–6 chisell, chesell, 5 chysel, chesel(e, cheselle, sceselle, scheselle, 5–6 chesyl(le, 6 chyssell, chesil(l, chesal, 6–8 chizel(l, 7 chissell, chessill, chizil, chizzell, (cheezil, chitzell), 8 chessel, 7–9 chissel, chizzel, 4– chisel. [a. ONF. chisel (= central OF. cisel, in mod.F. ciseau, (= OPr. cisel, Cat. cisell, Sp. ci-n-cel, Pg. ci-n-zel chisel):—late L. type cīsell-um dim. f. *cisum = cæsum, f. cædĕre to cut: cf. L. cīsorium cutting tool; see SCISSORS.
(It. cesello points to L. *cæsellum, but It. has also derivatives of the *cis-um type. See Gröber in Archiv f. Lat. Lexicog. u. Gram., I. 546.)]
1. A cutting tool of iron or steel with the cutting face transverse to the axis, and more or less abruptly bevelled on one or both sides; used for cutting wood, metal, or stone, and worked either by pressure, or by the blows of a mallet or hammer.
The ordinary carpenter’s chisel has a wooden handle, and a plane face at right angles to the axis, bevelled on one side only; most of the stone-cutters’ chisels are bevelled on both sides (or rarely on four sides); some chisels, as the gouge, have the plane of the face curved; others, used in turning, have the edge concave or convex.
1382. Wyclif, Job xix. 24. Who ȝiueth to me, that my woordis be writen?… or with a chisell thei be grauen in flint?
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pers. T., ¶ 344. But there is also costlewe furrynge in hir gownes, so muche pownsonynge of chisel [Harl. chesellis, Selden cheseles] to maken holes, so muche daggynge of sheres.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 76/1. Chysell, instrument, celtis.
1483. Cath. Angl., 64/1. A Cheselle, celtis, celium, scalprum.
a. 1500. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 807. Hic cunius, a sceselle. Hec seltis, a scheselle.
1539. Cranmer, Bible, Pref. As mallettes … chesylles, axes, and hatchettes be the tooles of theyr occupacyon.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1633), 21. A bondman or slaue … is but the instrument of his Lord, as … the Chessill and Gowge is of the Carpenter.
1580. Baret, Alv., C 438. A Chesill, celtis.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1247. The Lacedæmonians … caused the said Epigram to be cut out with a chizzel.
1618. Bolton, Florus, IV. x. (1636), 312. The silver which hee had in the Army was every where chipt with chizils.
1669. Boyle, Contn. New Exp., I. (1682), 187. Fragments struck off from it with a Chizel and a Hammer.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 85, ¶ 10. If our divines and physicians were taught the lathe and the chizzel.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (1871), 829. Such teeth are, in fact, chisels of most admirable construction.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Stonehenge, Wks. (Bohn), II. 124. On almost every stone we found the marks of the mineralogist’s hammer and chisel.
b. esp. as the sculptor’s tool.
1631. Shaks., Wint. T., V. iii. 78. What fine Chizzell Could euer yet cut breath?
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, x. 61. The most exquisite turns of the chissel in the hands of a master.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 705. Nor does the chissel occupy alone The pow’rs of sculpture, but the style as much.
1825. Macaulay, Milton, Ess. (1851), I. 11. [The poetry] of Dante is picturesque indeed beyond any that ever was written. Its effect approaches to that produced by the pencil or the chisel.
1859. G. Wilson, in Macm. Mag., I. Nov., 35/2. The Chisel, the architect’s and sculptor’s lithographic pen, with which cathedrals and Sebastopols are written in granite, and gods and men in marble!
c. With various defining words prefixed, as firmer chisel, mortise chisel, round chisel, etc., cold chisel, a strong chisel entirely of iron or steel highly tempered, so as to cut cold iron (F. ciseau à froid, so called in contradistinction to the ciseau à chaud, or blacksmith’s chisel for cutting hot iron, which, as it becomes itself hot in the process, is held by a withe or other temporary handle).
1662. Evelyn, Sculptura, 5. Some round cheezil or lathe perhaps it was.
1699. Dampier, Voy., an. 1687, 435 (R.). It was one Man’s work to be all day cutting out Bars of Iron into small pieces with a cold Chisel.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 239. The Firmer Chisel is a thin broad chisel, with the sides parallel to a certain length, and then tapering, so as to become much narrower towards the shoulder. Ibid. Paring chisel.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., § 1. 20. Some cold chissels, a screw driver … cutting chissels.
d. A surgical instrument of like make and use, for cutting bone. So chisel-osteotome, a chisel for dividing the bones in osteotomy.
1685. J. Cooke, Marrow Chirurg., IV. II. iv. 204. Fingers and Toes, yea Hands and Feet, also superfluous Fingers, &c. may be removed, either by fit Chizels, or cutting-Mullets.
1871. T. Holmes, Syst. Surg. (ed. 2), V. 1076. Sets of bone-cutting forceps and chisels. Ibid. (1883), (ed. 3), III. 825. With Maunder’s chisel-‘osteotome’ there is less chance of disturbing the soft parts.
† 2. ? A paint-brush. Obs.
a. 1500. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 571. Celeps, a chesell to peynte wyth. [Cf. Cath. Angl., A Brusch for paynterys, celeps.]
3. U.S. colloq. phr. Full chisel: at full speed, ‘full drive.’
1837–40. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 95. The long shanks of a bittern down in a rush swamp, a drivin away like mad full chizel arter a frog.
1878. Mrs. Stowe, Poganuc P., ix. 76. Then he’d turn and run up the narrow way, full chisel.
4. attrib. Resembling a chisel, chisel-shaped.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 58. The siluer scalit fyschis … With fynnys schinand … And chesal [1874 chyssell] talis.
5. Comb., as chisel-edge, -mark; chisel-cut, -like, -pointed, -shaped adjs.; chisel-bone, the one half of the lower jaw of the pike (fish); chisel-draft, a flat line, of the breadth of the chisel, cut on the edges of a stone which is to be dressed, to mark the level of the plane of the intended surface; chisel-tooth, a name given to the incisor teeth of rodent animals.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Tracts (1684), 214. Batrachomyomachia, or the Homerican Battel between Frogs and Mice, neatly described upon the *Chizel Bone of a large Pike’s Jaw.
1864. Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop., xxx. (ed. 3), 449. Able to read dates in *chisel-cut mouldings.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 261 (note). Driving a fair *chissel draft across the joints.
1849. Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, IV. 83. When any unnecessary branches project inward, they cut them off with their *chisel-like teeth.
1863. A. C. Ramsay, Phys. Geog. (1878), 612. The very *chisel-marks of the men who built the castle.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric. (1807), I. 9. The Kentish turnwrest-plough with a *chisel-pointed share.
1849. Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, IV. 8. [Incisors] with sharp *chisel-shaped edges.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 906/1. The long and large incisors of the Rodents have been termed … *Chisel teeth.
Chisel sb.2, another form of CHESIL, gravel.
