chisel
/ˈt͡ʃɪzəl/ noun, verb
Forms chisels chiseling chiselling chiseled chiselled chesil chissel chessil
- noun A cutting tool used to remove parts of stone, wood or metal by pushing or pounding the back when the sharp edge is against the material. It consists of a slim, oblong block of metal with a sharp wedge or bevel formed on one end and sometimes a handle at the other end; there are hand tool versions (the original type) and versions as bits for power tools.
- noun A part of any of various tools or devices that has an analogous purpose, cutting raw material or a workpiece during the process that the tool or device performs.
- noun A part of some ploughs, next to the ploughshare, that helps cut into the soil and deal with obstructions such as rocks, roots, and stems.
- verb (intransitive) To use a chisel.
- verb (transitive) To work something with a chisel. “She chiselled a sculpture out of the block of wood.”
- verb (transitive, dated) To barge in on (something); to intrude on (something).
- verb (transitive, figurative) To make small changes to (something), bit by bit, resulting in change over time. “Laws that protect the environment are being chiseled away.”
- verb (ambitransitive, informal) To beg or pressure somebody into giving up (something); to haggle excessively; to cheat; to obtain something from (someone) by cheating. “He's managed to chisel a couple dollars from somewhere.”
- noun Gravel.
- noun (usually in the plural) Coarse flour; bran; the coarser part of bran or flour.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English chisel, chesel, from Old Northern French chisel, cisel, from cisoir (with a change in suffix), from Late Latin cīsōrium (“cutting tool”), from Latin caedō (“cut”). Doublet of scissors.
From Middle English chisel, chesil, from Old English ċeosol, ċeosel, ċysel, ċisel, ċisil (“gravel, sand”), from Proto-West Germanic *kesul (“small stone, pebble”). See also chessom.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A tool with a cutting edge on one end of a metal blade, used in dressing, shaping, or working in timber, stone, metal, etc.; --usually driven by a mallet or hammer. Cold chisel. See under Cold, a.
- verb To cut, pare, gouge, or engrave with a chisel; as, to chisel a block of marble into a statue.
- verb To cut close, as in a bargain; to cheat. [Slang]
Etymology [OF. chisel, F. ciseau, fr. LL. cisellus, prob. for caesellus, fr. L. caesus, p. p. of caedere to cut. Cf. Scissors.]
Etymology [Cf. F. ciseler.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chisel”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details