chiseling 1 of 2

noun

variants or chiselling
as in swindling

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chiseling

2 of 2

verb

variants or chiselling
present participle of chisel
as in squeezing
to rob by the use of trickery or threats ruthlessly chiseled other students out of their lunch money

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of chiseling
Noun
There’s an art to the hand-cutting and chiseling of the tiles which has been passed down through generations. — Patricia Shannon, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Sep. 2025 The type of manual mining Ojibwe perform to obtain pipestone, however, involves crawling into small caves and careful chiseling by hand. — Frank Vaisvilas, jsonline.com, 14 Aug. 2025
Verb
The religious men took up residence among the locals—people who spent their days tending cows and sheep, churning butter, weeding onions and turnips, scouring the forests for mushrooms, and chiseling sculptures from the local limestone. — CBS News, 1 May 2026 Moyes knows this squad well, both its strengths and weaknesses, and has become adept at chiselling out points on his travels. — Roshane Thomas, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2026 Monroe County High School students are chiseling a marble sculpture for America's 250th birthday, guided by an internationally renowned artist and supported by their community. — Ray Padilla, Louisville Courier Journal, 11 Feb. 2026 Then the hard work began, like a sculptor chiseling a block of marble into a work of art. — Andrew Carter, Chicago Tribune, 10 Jan. 2026 For 11 days starting in late January, downtown fills with ice and snow sculptures, lively parades, and some of the region’s most skilled carvers chiseling massive blocks into glistening scenes. — Lauren Dana Ellman, Midwest Living, 29 Dec. 2025 The dog dug through the snow, chiseling out her masterpiece as the couple stood back laughing at Nala's determination to keep the snowman out of the yard. — Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2025 Jason Dawson of the Children's Cancer Centre chiseling the bricks around the time capsule. — Patrick Smith, NBC news, 27 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for chiseling
  1. swindling
  2. squeezing
  3. skinning
  4. plucking
  5. defrauding
  6. hustling
  7. cheating
  8. screwing
Noun
  • Her lawyers, Giuseppe Iannaccone and Marcello Bana, have denied there was a case of grand larceny, which would include fraud and swindling.
    — Luisa Zargani, Footwear News, 14 Jan. 2026
Definition of swindling
Verb
  • Marris was aghast, squeezing the sides of her phone to capture what was on the screen.
    — CNN Money, CNN Money, 1 Oct. 2026
  • The level of boredom Pugh brought to Kate making her older client orgasm by squeezing his nipples really sold her approach to the work.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of squeezing
Noun
  • The United States will compete in the relay, which starts with a section of skinning — essentially racing uphill with a free heel and climbing skins glued to the skis.
    — The Sports Desk, NBC news, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Nicknamed skimo, ski mountaineering combines uphill skiing (skinning), technical climbing (bootpacking) and downhill skiing.
    — Kyle Newman, Denver Post, 1 Feb. 2026
Definition of skinning
Verb
  • LLMs are great at finding blowups that exist—at searching the infinite landscape of fluid scenarios and plucking out the precise situation that breaks the equations.
    — Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Fortunately, many dahlia insect problems in September can be solved by walking through the garden in the morning and plucking the offending insects off the plants by hand, then dropping them into a container of soapy water.
    — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of plucking
Noun
  • Her defrauding of the Foundation, however, surpassed that figure as FBI agents dug deeper into her theft.
    — Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, 15 Dec. 2025
  • And what could be more legitimate of a cause for removing a governor of the nation's central bank—which is, among other things, the lender of last resort to the country's financial institutions—than the alleged defrauding of those very financial institutions?
    — Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
Definition of defrauding
Verb
  • Besides Instagram hustling and scouring job boards, entrepreneurial editors find gigs when creators call out for help.
    — Andrew Zucker, HollywoodReporter, 7 Aug. 2026
  • Devers, who finished with three hits, eschewed his power for small ball in the fifth, laying down a surprise bunt for a single, then hustling home on Susac’s sacrifice fly.
    — Justice delos Santos, Mercury News, 31 July 2026
Definition of hustling
Noun
  • Manchester City, one of the most successful teams in the world in recent years, has been found guilty of systematically cheating – financially doping its way to dominance for the best part of a decade.
    — Ben Church, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Practically everyone, regardless of political affiliation, must understand by now that there simply is no evidence of widespread — significant, meaningful — voter cheating in California or anywhere else in America.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of cheating
Verb
  • The screwworm gets its name from the maggots’ habit of burrowing — or screwing — into a wound, according to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
    — Fabiola Sánchez, Fortune, 23 Aug. 2026
  • There’s a storyline in season two about AI being employed at the hospital, then screwing everything up when the system goes down.
    — Hillary Busis, Vanity Fair, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of screwing

Browse Nearby Words

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Cite this Entry

“Chiseling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chiseling. Accessed 5 Oct. 2026.

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