chip

1 of 2

noun

plural chips
1
a
: a small usually thin and flat piece (as of wood or stone) cut, struck, or flaked off
b
: a small piece of food: such as
(1)
: a small, thin, crisp, usually salty piece of food typically prepared by frying, baking, or drying
banana chips
especially : potato chip see also corn chip
(2)
(3)
: a small often cone-shaped bit of food often used for baking
chocolate chips
c
: a small card displaying a paint color or a range of paint colors available for purchase
fabric swatches and paint chips
2
: something small, worthless, or trivial
3
a
: one of the counters used as a token for money in poker and other games
b
chips plural : money
used especially in the phrase in the chips
The beginning was always characterized by careless haste in the expectation of landing in the chips, …William Kittredge
c
: something valuable that can be used for advantage in negotiation or trade
a bargaining chip
4
: a piece of dried dung
usually used in combination
cow chip
5
: a flaw left after a chip has been broken off
6
b
: a small wafer of semiconductor material that forms the base for an integrated circuit
7
8
: microarray
DNA chips

chip

2 of 2

verb

chipped; chipping

transitive verb

1
a
: to cut or hew with an edged tool
b(1)
: to cut or break (a small piece) from something
(2)
: to cut or break a fragment from
chip a tooth
(3)
: to cut into chips
chip a tree stump
2
British : chaff, banter
3
: to hit (a return in tennis) with backspin

intransitive verb

1
: to break off in small pieces
2
: to play a chip shot
Phrases
chip off the old block
: a child that resembles his or her parent
chip on one's shoulder
: a challenging or belligerent attitude

Examples of chip in a Sentence

Noun The cup has a chip in it. wood chips were spread over the ground between the plants Verb I bit into something hard and chipped my tooth. He fell and chipped a bone in his knee. The paint had chipped off. He chipped away the ice from the car's windshield. The sculptor chipped away bits of stone. The golfer chipped the ball onto the green. She chipped the soccer ball over the goalie's head. He chipped a pass to his teammate. The golfer chipped onto the green.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Frito-Lay's representatives did not respond to NPR's question whether — or when — the company planned to start adding more chips to each bag. Alina Selyukh, NPR, 8 Mar. 2024 The chip is still generations behind the top components from global firms, but ahead of where the U.S. hoped to stop China’s advance. Cagan Koc, Fortune Asia, 8 Mar. 2024 For 2024, the laptop comes with Apple’s new M3 processor with two variations, which the company says is 60 percent faster than the M1 chip and up to 13 times faster than the Intel Core i7 processor. Rudie Obias, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Mar. 2024 But hey, third-party developers can actually access the iPhone’s NFC tap-to-pay chip now! David Meyer, Fortune, 7 Mar. 2024 As Rap Snacks was entering the scene, Frito-Lay owned about half the market of the snack chip business, with more than $5 billion in sales in 1994. Michael Butler, Miami Herald, 7 Mar. 2024 The 2022 MacBook Air is a thin, lightweight device powered by Apple’s M2 chip. Quentyn Kennemer, The Verge, 6 Mar. 2024 Congressional aides and former NIST employees say the agency has not been able to break through as a funding priority — even as lawmakers increasingly tout its role in addressing technological developments, including AI, chips and quantum. Cat Zakrzewski, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2024 As the restaurant expanded with multiple locations over the next 35 years, the menu stayed the same: ribs, barbecue sauce, Sunbeam white bread, chips, and soda. Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 6 Mar. 2024
Verb
Even brief rain exposure can cause the wooden boards to chip and crack. Samantha McIntyre, Parents, 9 Mar. 2024 With each visit, his words chipped away at my emotional disassociation. Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2024 Lemur wasn’t much better, only chipping things away. Erik Kain, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024 In a game that featured 10 lead changes and six ties, UCSD led 72-61 with 7:54 to play before the Anteaters chipped away as foul trouble sent McGhie and forward J’Raan Brooks (nine points) to the bench. Ivan Carter, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Feb. 2024 Somewhere in between these extremes is the unglamorous, frequently tedious work of chipping away at an idea, a sequence, or line of dialogue that gets to the heart of what a scribe wants to say — or more precisely, hopes to communicate. Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 23 Feb. 2024 This and other progressive, secularizing changes in American political culture across the past 150 years have chipped away at the traditional civic mission of public and private higher education. Paul O. Carrese, National Review, 13 Feb. 2024 New York’s program was intended to chip away at the migrant shelter population that stands at about 65,000 people, including 15,000 families, as the crisis approaches its two-year anniversary. Wesley Parnell Dave Sanders, New York Times, 25 Feb. 2024 One corner of the rectangular monument was chipped, but the rest was generally intact. Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 23 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'chip.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English; akin to Old English -cippian

Verb

Middle English chippen, from Old English -cippian (as in forcippian to cut off); akin to Old English cipp beam, Old High German chipfa stave

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of chip was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near chip

Cite this Entry

“Chip.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chip. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

chip

1 of 2 noun
1
: a small thin flat piece (as of wood, stone, or glass) broken off : flake
2
: a small piece of food
chocolate chip
: as
b
: french fry entry 1
fish and chips
3
a
: a counter used in poker
b
plural : money sense 1c
in the chips
4
: a flaw left after a small piece has been broken off
a cup with a chip in it
5
: a very small slice of silicon containing electronic circuits (as for a computer)

chip

2 of 2 verb
chipped; chipping
1
: to cut or break a chip from something
chip a cup
2
: to break off in small pieces

Medical Definition

chip

noun
: microarray
When exposed to a sample of unknown DNA, the probes on the chip bind to their complementary strands, thereby reading the sequences in the sample.Jeff Wheelwright, Discover

More from Merriam-Webster on chip

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