chip

• enPR: chĭp, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɪp/

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɪp

Noun from Middle English chip, chippe, from Old English ċipp (“chip; small piece of wood, shaving”), from Old English *ċippian (“to cut; hew”) – attested in Old English forċippian (“to cut off”) –, from Proto-Germanic *kipp- (“to cut; carve; hack; chop”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeyb- (“to split; divide; germinate; sprout”). Related to Dutch kip, keep (“notch; nick; score”), Dutch kippen (“to hatch”), German Low German kippen (“to cut; clip; trim; shorten”), German kipfen (“to chop off the tip; snip”), Old Swedish kippa (“to chop”). Compare also chop.

The formally similar Old English ċipp, ċypp, ċyp (“a beam; log; stock; post”), from Proto-Germanic *kippaz (“log; beam”), whence Old Saxon kip (“post”), Old High German kipfa, chipfa (“axle, stave”) and Old Norse keppr (“cudgel, club”), ultimately from Latin cippus (“stake; pale; post”), is a different, unrelated word.

Verb from Middle English chippen, from Old English *ċippian (“to cut; hew”) – attested in Old English forċippian (“to cut off”) –, from Proto-Germanic *kipp- (“to cut; carve; hack; chop”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵey- (“to split; divide; germinate; sprout”). Related to Dutch kippen (“to hatch”), German Low German kippen (“to cut; clip; trim; shorten”), German kipfen (“to chop off the tip; snip”), Old Swedish kippa (“to chop”). Compare also chop.

chip (plural chips)

A computer chip.

A plate of potato chips (UK).

A pile of potato chips (US).

A bowl of chocolate chips.

1. A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material.

   The floor of the sculptor's studio was strewn with chips of marble.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 3:

     The universe is finished; the copestone is on, and the chips were carted off a million years ago.

2. A damaged area of a surface where a small piece has been broken off.

   This cup has a chip in it.

3. (games, gambling) A token used in place of cash.
   • 2002, Albert H. Moorehead, Hoyle′s Rules of Games, page 46:

     If the second player does raise three chips, and all the other players drop, the player who opened may stay in by putting three more chips in the pot, for then he will have put in precisely as many chips as the second player.

4. A medallion.
   • 2023, Thomas Thurnell-Read, Mark Monaghan, Intoxication: Self, State and Society, page 135:

     AA chips showing duration of abstinence (6 months)

5. (slang, dated) A sovereign (the coin).
6. (electronics) A circuit fabricated in one piece on a small, thin substrate; a microchip.
   • 1986 September 1, Tom Moran, Lisa L. Spiegelman, New Chip Said to Contain Seven PC AT Chip Functions, InfoWorld, page 5,

     But sources close to the company said the chip contains two direct memory access controllers, two interrupt controllers, a timer, a memory mapper from Texas Instruments, and a Motorola Inc. real-time clock.

7. (electronics) A hybrid device mounted in a substrate, containing electronic circuitry and miniaturised mechanical, chemical and/or biochemical devices.
   • 2002, Koji Ikuta, Atsushi Takahashi, Kota Ikeda, Shoji Maruo, User-Assembly Fully Integrated Micro Chemical Laboratory Using Biochemical IC Chips for Wearable/Implantable Applications, Yoshinobu Baba, Shuichi Shoji, Albert van den Berg (editors), Micro Total Analysis Systems 2002: Proceedings of the μTAS 2002 Symposium, Volume 1, page 38,

     Fig. 4(a) shows a schematic design of the micropump chip.

   • 2007, Elisabeth S. Papazoglou, Aravind Parthasarathy, Bionanotechnology, page 6:

     Fig. 0.3 is an image of the front and back views of a drug delivery microchip made of silicon and painted with gold, with a U.S. dime (10 cents). The chip in the picture consists of 34 nano-sized wells each of which is capable of housing 24 nl (nano liters) of drug. It is possible to make at least 400 wells or even 1000 or more in these chips which are very inexpensive, costing less tham $20 [22, 23].

8. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, archaic in Canada, usually in the plural) A deep-fried strip of potato; see also usage note at french fries.
   • 2023 July 21, Billie Schwab Dunn, “I Tried Wetherspoons Food for the First Time-I Feared I'd Get Scurvy...”, in Daily Star:

     I always say the best way to judge an establishment is by its chips because if you can’t master that, what can you do?

   Do you want ketchup, mustard, or mayonnaise on your chips?

   Fish and chips is a traditional British dish.

9. (US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, especially in the plural) A thin, crisp, fried slice of potato, a crisp; occasionally a similar fried slice of another vegetable or dried fruit.

   They made their own potato chips from scratch... He ate a tortilla chip with guac... served with a side of apple chips...

10. A type of shot in various sports.
    1. (sports such as soccer) A shot during which the ball travels more predominantly upwards than in a regular shot, as to clear an obstacle.
       • 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport‎:

         Oxlade-Chamberlain saw his attempted chip well blocked by goalkeeper Costanzo at the start of the second half.

    2. (tennis) A light shot with a downward slice, usually played from close to the net.
    3. (golf) A low shot, usually played at short range around and onto a green, intended to travel a short distance through the air and roll the remainder of the way towards the hole.
    4. (cue sports) A very light shot that hits the cue ball so softly that it barely moves an object ball into a pocket without the cue ball going in as well.
    5. (curling) A takeout that hits a rock at an angle.
11. A dried piece of dung, often used as fuel.
12. (New Zealand, northern) A receptacle, usually for strawberries or other fruit.
13. (cooking) A small, near-conical piece of food added in baking.

    chocolate chip

14. A small rectangle of colour printed on coated paper for colour selection and matching. A virtual equivalent in software applications.
15. (nautical) The triangular piece of wood attached to the log line.
16. (historical) Wood or Cuban palm leaf split into slips, or straw plaited in a special manner, for making hats or bonnets.
17. (archaic, derogatory) Anything dried up, withered, or without flavour.

In New Zealand and Australia, where the term chip(s) can refer to either french fried potatoes or deep-fried potato slices, the dishes are distinguished as "hot chips" (french fried potatoes) or, in New Zealand, "cold chips" (deep-fried potato slices) when clarity is needed.

• (small piece broken off): flake
• (circuit): IC, integrated circuit, microchip, silicon chip
• (deep-fried or baked slice of vegetable): crisp (UK, Ireland)
• (deep-fried small column of potato): fry (mainly North America), French fries (mainly North America)
• (a receptacle for strawberries): punnet (British, New Zealand, Australia), pottle (New Zealand, southern)

• → Catalan: xip
• → Greek: τσιπ (tsip)
• → Italian: chip
• → Korean: 칩 (chip)
• → Hebrew: צִ'יפּ
• → Hebrew: צִ'יפְּסְ
• → Turkish: cips, çip
• → Yiddish: טשיפּל (tshipl)
• → Welsh: tsip

• French fries
• fries
• potato wedge
• woodchip

chip (third-person singular simple present chips, present participle chipping, simple past and past participle chipped)

1. (transitive) To chop or cut into small pieces.

   The workers chipped the dead branches into mulch.

   • 2015 February 7, Val Bourne, “The quiet man of the world of snowdrops”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G8:

     Once it [a snowdrop variety] became established, some bulbs were lifted and passed on to be chipped (i.e. cut into small pieces and grown on).

2. (transitive) To break small pieces from.

   Be careful not to chip the paint.

3. (intransitive) To become chipped.

   This varnish chips easily.

4. (transitive, sports) To strike or play (the ball or other implement) as a chip shot.
   • 2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian:

     Koeman identified Southampton’s third as their finest goal of the game. Jack Cork, the most underrated player at a much-lauded club, swept the ball out wide to Tadic, who waited for Cork to run to the back post before chipping the ball across to him to slam in a deserved goal from close range, despite an attempted block by Vito Mannone.

5. (transitive, sports such as soccer) To beat (an opposing player) by use of a chip shot, such as by looping the ball over the head of the opposing goalkeeper.
   • 2016 March 13, Andy Edwards, “VIDEO: San Jose’s Quincy Amarikwa chips, goes upper-90 from 35 yards out”, in NBCSports.com:

     Typically when someone scores a stunning goal this early in the season — it’s only Week 2 — it gets forgotten, or at the very least lost in the shuffle after eight more months of worthy GOTY candidates. Not this year, though, because no one is forgetting Amarikwa chipping Adam Kwarasey from 35 yards out and burying the ball in the top corner.

6. (transitive, cue sports) To move (a ball) a relatively short distance by means of an oblique contact.

   In potting the black, he also managed to chip the red off the side cushion.

7. (transitive, informal) To fit (an animal) with a microchip.
8. (transitive, automotive) To upgrade an engine management system, usually to increase power.
9. (intransitive, card games, often with "in") To ante (up).
10. (UK, transitive, often with "in") To contribute.

    Everyone needs to chip in £1 for George's leaving collection.

11. (also to chip at) To make fun of.
    • 1923, George Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan:

      They chip me about giving that young judy the cross; but I dont care: I stand up to them proper, and tell them that if she hadnt a better right to it than they, she'd be where they are.

    • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

      That sounded a trivial message, but the man began to cry. 'That's her', he sobbed. 'She was always chipping me about my collars'.

chip (third-person singular simple present chips, present participle chipping, simple past and past participle chipped)

1. (UK, slang, intransitive) To leave.
   • 2012, Zadie Smith, NW, London: Penguin Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 109:

     ‘Lloyd, I’m gonna chip.’ ‘You just got here!’ ‘I know–but I gotta chip. Got shit to do.’

• chip chip cheerio (probably not etymologically related)

• Jonathon Green (2024) “chip v.³”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Borrowed from English chip.

• IPA^(key): /tʃɪp/

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: chip
• Rhymes: -ɪp

chip m (plural chips, diminutive chipje n)

1. (electronics, computing) A chip (one-piece circuit or hybrid device containing a circuit and another device).

• microchip
• nanochip

Borrowed from English chip.

chip m (plural chips)

1. chip (circuit)

• microchip
• cambiar el chip
• tarjeta chip

• “chip”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, since 2012

Borrowed from English chip.

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃip]

chip

1. Superseded spelling of csip.[1]

• IPA^(key): /çɪpʲ/

chip m

1. Lenited form of cip.

Unadapted borrowing from English chip.

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃip/[1]
• Rhymes: -ip

chip m (invariable)

1. chip (small electronic component)

chip

1. Alternative form of chippe

chip

1. Alternative form of schip

• czip

Unadapted borrowing from English chip, from Middle English chip, chippe, from Old English ċipp, from Old English *ċippian, from Proto-Germanic *kipp-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeyb-.

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʂip/

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -ip
• Syllabification: chip

chip m inan

1. (electronics) chip (integrated circuit)

• chip in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• chip in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English chip.

• Homophone: chipe

chip m (plural chips) (proscribed, unadapted spelling)

1. Alternative form of chipe

Borrowed from Hungarian kép (“image”).

• IPA^(key): /kip/

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chip n (plural chipuri)

1. face, likeness

   Synonym: față f

   • 2003, “Dragostea din tei [Love from the lindens]”, performed by O-Zone [O-Zone]:

     Chipul tău și dragostea din tei
     Mi-amintesc de ochii tăi.

     Your face and the love from the linden
     Remind me of your eyes.

2. picture, image

   Synonym: imagine f

• închipui

Borrowed from English chip.

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃip/ [ˈt͡ʃip]
• Rhymes: -ip
• Syllabification: chip

chip m (plural chips)

1. chip (circuit)

• “chip”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014