chip

1 of 2

noun

ˈchip 

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)

: french fry

(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

a

: integrated circuit

b

: a small wafer of semiconductor material that forms the base for an integrated circuit

7

: chip shot sense 1

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

Synonyms

Noun

• flake
• sliver
• spall
• splint
• splinter

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

The two new factories Micron is building will be capable of manufacturing the advanced chips used in high-consumption applications such as AI. —Dylan Sloan, Fortune, 25 Apr. 2024

Taiwan accounts for more than 60% of the microchip supplies worldwide, and 90% of the advanced chips used in smartphones and high-performance computing. —Journal Sentinel, 24 Apr. 2024

The Lakers scored just 15 points over the next 15½ minutes, which helped the Nuggets chip away and get within 83-79. —Khobi Price, Orange County Register, 23 Apr. 2024

In March, the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) pinpointed the cause behind Voyager 1's nonsensical data: a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the spacecraft’s flight data system (FDS) memory. —Passant Rabie / Gizmodo, Quartz, 23 Apr. 2024

The core of the problem turned out to be a faulty chip hosting some software code and part of the FDS memory. —Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Apr. 2024

That raises a really hard question: Should those chips be going into a data center that are being used for human rights abuses? —Lauren Goode, WIRED, 23 Apr. 2024

Instead, Chinese telecom companies will turn to homegrown chips, which have improved in the nation. —Britney Nguyen, Quartz, 12 Apr. 2024

Donning his Sun Day Red apparel – released in collaboration with TaylorMade – at Augusta National, Woods rolled back the years at various points, starting with an audacious left-handed chip to escape the trees on Thursday. —Jack Bantock, CNN, 12 Apr. 2024

Verb

Katherine Pruitt, the national senior director for clean air policy at the American Lung Association, said climate change is chipping away at decades of cleanup efforts made through the Clean Air Act, a federal law passed in 1963 to regulate air pollution and set air quality standards. —Evan Bush, NBC News, 24 Apr. 2024

Scheffler missed the 18th green to the right, chipped safely to 18 feet and two-putted for bogey. —Doug Ferguson, Twin Cities, 22 Apr. 2024

The table is durable and has t-mold edges to protect the corners from chipping. —Laura Lu, Ms, Parents, 21 Apr. 2024

The Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services in 2021 cited the building for chipping and peeling paint, missing wood siding, loose chimney brick and other signs of exterior disrepair. —Tom Daykin, Journal Sentinel, 10 Apr. 2024

But tensions triggered by the war have chipped away at such solidarity, even in places like Oklahoma City, where interfaith roots date back to the 1995 bombing of the downtown federal building. —Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2024

The ball was initially chipped into the box by Sofia Huerta and while the Red Stars defense attempted to deflect the shot, Ji remained patient at the top of the box. —Jackie Gutierrez, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2024

Arkansas chipped away at the lead in the bottom of the second. —Ethan Westerman, arkansasonline.com, 25 Mar. 2024

The latest attempt to chip away at the amount owed for education means President Joe Biden has now erased a grand total of $153 billion in debt, impacting 4.3 million people. —Sunny Nagpaul, Fortune, 12 Apr. 2024

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

Phrases Containing chip

• bargaining chip
• blue chip
• chip in
• chip off the old block
• chip on one's shoulder
• chip shop
• chip shot
• chocolate chip cookies
• corn chip
• have a chip on one's shoulder
• kettle chip
• potato chip
• tortilla chip
• V-chip
• white chip

Kids Definition

chip

1 of 2 noun

ˈchip 

1

: a small thin flat piece (as of wood, stone, or glass) broken off : flake

2

: a small piece of food

chocolate chip

: as

a

: potato chip

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

ˈchip 

: 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