Also 6–7 chopp(e. [Another form of CHAP sb.2; and the more usual one in several senses. Choip in the quot. of 1505 (which occurs in a printed text of 1508) is the earliest trace of the word in any form: with this exception the chap form is evidenced earlier. The variation may have arisen from association with the other words in which chap varies with chop.]
1. A jaw.
c. 1505. Dunbar, Flyting, 166. Thy cheik bane bair … Thy choip, thy choll, garris men for to leif chest.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 44, ¶ 5. There is a Thread on one of Punch’s Chops, which draws it up, and lets it fall.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 96. His fallen chop Most eloquently tells.
b. usually pl. Jaws; sides of the face.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 124. The muscles of the choppes.
a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Thierry, III. 460. He … laies me over the chops with his club fist.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 223. Make deep scarification under the Chops.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1727), 86. To give Nic. a good slap on the chops.
1731. Swift, Wks. (1841), II. 50. If thou hadst as much brains in thy skull as beard on thy chops.
1875. B. Taylor, Faust, IV. ii. II. 247. His cheekbones and his chops are shattered.
1877. Holderness Gloss. (E. D. S.), Chops, the jaws. ‘Ah ’ll slap thy chops fo tha’.’
2. pl. The jaws and intervening space, the cavity of the mouth, fauces, parts about the mouth; = CHAP sb.2 2. (This is the more usual form in contemptuous or humorous application to men.)
1589. Hay any Work (1844), 69. Whose good names can take no staine, from a bishops chopps.
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat., III. vi. 8. Downe he dips his chops deepe in the myre, And drinks.
1632. Lithgow, Trav. (1682), 421. Two Hens … changed, as they grow fat for the Priests Chops.
1655. Fellowes, trans. Milton’s 2nd Defence, 227. The sight of this egg … caused our monarchy-men … to lick their chops.
1733. Fielding, Int. Chamberm., I. v. My chops begin to water.
1748. trans. Vegetius’ Distemp. Horses, 37. Mixed with hot Water, and … poured down the Animal’s Chops.
1849. Thoreau, Week Concord Riv., Tuesd. 206. The nut stowed away in its chops.
1864. Capern, Devon Prov., Chops, the mouth.
3. transf. An appellation for a person with fat or bloated cheeks.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. ii. 151. Fal. Ile hang you for going. Poy. You will, chops. Ibid. (1597), 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 235. Come on, you whorson Chops.
1611. Cotgr., Fafelu, Puffed vp, fat cheeked, a chops.
4. transf. The mouth, opening or entrance of an abyss, cannon, valley, channel, etc.
1636. Featly, Clavis Myst., v. 64. In the very chops of destinie, or jawes of death it selfe.
1697. Bp. Patrick, Comm. Ex. xiv. 2. 244. They were to enter, by the Chops of Pihahiroth.
1727. Swift, Poems, To Delany. He runs into a cannon’s chops.
1737. Whiston, Josephus, Antiq., II. xv. § 3. Which army they placed at the chops of the mountains.
b. Chops of the Channel: the entrance into the English Channel from the Atlantic.
1692. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 646. A squadron of 13 French men of warr sailed from Brest, 6 to lye in the chops of the Channell [etc.].
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. x. (ed. 4), 548. Cruising in the chops of the Channel.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, I. xi. 146. The brig was not far off from the chops of the Channel.
a. 1845. Hood, Supper Superst., vi. When down she went with all our hands, Right in the Channel’s Chops.
5. Mech. The ‘jaws’ or ‘cheeks’ of a vice, etc.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 36. Two chops, free to slide between guides, embrace the pendulum spring.
† 6. Comb.
1745. trans. Columella’s Husb., V. vi. The chops-shoot is that which springs out of the middle, between two arms of the vine, as it were, in a fork.
