[f. CHISEL sb.1, which see for forms. Cf. F. ciseler. (Sense 3 is doubtfully connected.)]
1. trans. To cut, grave, pare, shape, etc., with a chisel. Often with out.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., iii. 16. A grece there was ychesyled all of stone Out of the rocke.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 297. The Stones chesseled and made smooth.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., E iij. With this and a Hammer to strike with, we Chissel the Ore out of Loughs in Pipe Works.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 129. People were at work chiselling several statues in marble from the plaster models.
b. absol. To work with a chisel.
1873. ‘Ouida,’ Pascarèl, II. 142. In these days no man will be content to chisel humbly.
2. transf. and fig.
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., xxix. 135. These all modify, repair, and chissel forth the body.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 119. It is as if there were some fine art to chisel thought.
3. colloq. or slang. To cheat, defraud. To chisel out of: to cheat of.
[History obscure: written evidence wanting.]
1808. Jamieson, Chizzel, to cheat, to act deceitfully. [Its use at Winchester Coll. in 1821 is vouched for by the Warden of New College (the Rev. Dr. Sewell), and in 1839 by Rev. C. B. Mount. Mr. H. H. Gibbs says, ‘quite a current word in England in 1835.’]
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., To chisel, to cheat, to swindle (comp. To gouge), a Western word … ‘have chiselled the people of California out of a million of dollars.’
1848. Morning Post, 27 March, 8/3. We aint going to be chizzled out of it.
1856. Smyth (U.S.), Rom. Fam. Coins, 245. He muttered something about being ‘chiselled’ in the transaction.
1863. ‘Ouida,’ Held in Bondage (1870), 31. I never can stand quiet and see people trying to chisel me.
