chisel
Plural: chisels
Noun
- an edge tool with a flat steel blade with a cutting edge
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Gravel.
- Coarse flour; bran; the coarser part of bran or flour.
Verb
Verb Forms: chiseled, chiseling, chisels, chiselled, chiselling
- To cut or shape with a chisel; to cheat or swindle.
- engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud
- "Who's chiseling on the side?"
- deprive somebody of something by deceit
- "They chiseled me out of my money"
- carve with a chisel
- "chisel the marble"
- To use a chisel.
- To work something with a chisel.
- To barge in on (something); to intrude on (something).
- To make small changes to (something), bit by bit, resulting in change over time.
- To beg or pressure somebody into giving up (something); to haggle excessively; to cheat; to obtain something from (someone) by cheating.
Examples
- He tried to chisel out a high-scoring play from his tricky rack of letters.
- He's managed to chisel a couple dollars from somewhere.
- Laws that protect the environment are being chiseled away.
- She can always chisel whatever she needs from her father.
- She chiselled a sculpture out of the block of wood.
- She's always either chiseling or groveling, it seems.
Origin / 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.
Synonyms
cheat, rip off, chip away, chip#Verb
Scrabble Score: 11
chisel: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordchisel: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
chisel: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary