chisel
Americannoun
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chisels
plural
-
a wedgelike tool with a cutting edge at the end of the blade, often made of steel, used for cutting or shaping wood, stone, etc.
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Astronomy. Chisel, the constellation Caelum.
verb (used with object)
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chisels,
present (3rd person singular)
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chiseled,
past participle, past
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chiselled,
past participle, past (especially British)
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chiseling,
present participle
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chiselling
present participle (especially British)
-
to cut, shape, or fashion by or as if by carving with a chisel.
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to cheat or swindle (someone).
He chiseled me out of fifty dollars.
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to get (something) by cheating or trickery.
He chiseled fifty dollars out of me.
noun
verb
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to carve (wood, stone, metal, etc) or form (an engraving, statue, etc) with or as with a chisel
-
slang to cheat or obtain by cheating
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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chiselsimple
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chiselssimple
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have chiseledperfect
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have chiselledperfect
-
has chiseledperfect
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has chiselledperfect
-
am chiselingprogressive
-
am chisellingprogressive
-
are chiselingprogressive
-
are chisellingprogressive
-
is chiselingprogressive
-
is chisellingprogressive
-
have been chiselingperfect progressive
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have been chisellingperfect progressive
-
has been chiselingperfect progressive
-
has been chisellingperfect progressive
Past
-
chiseledsimple
-
chiselledsimple
-
had chiseledperfect
-
had chiselledperfect
-
was chiselingprogressive
-
was chisellingprogressive
-
were chiselingprogressive
-
were chisellingprogressive
-
had been chiselingperfect progressive
-
had been chisellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of chisel
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Anglo-French, variant of Old French cisel, from unattested Vulgar Latin cīsellus, diminutive of unattested cīsus, for Latin caesus, past participle of caedere “to cut,” with -ī- generalized from prefixed derivatives; cf. excide
Explanation
When you carve a statue from a block of marble, you use a tool called a chisel to cut out the shape. Chisel is the name of the tool and also the name of the action. A chisel has a flat, sharp end. To carve using a chisel, you hit the back of it with a hammer or another blunt instrument. Chisel can also mean "to cheat." If someone chisels you out of your allowance, they shaved it away from you bit by bit.
Vocabulary lists containing chisel
Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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On a Pedestal: Marble-ous Words for Sculpture
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
KYIV, Ukraine—It was late January, and an elite Ukrainian team grabbed their tools for a special operation critical to their country’s resistance against Russia: an underwater drone, a hammer and a chisel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026
“CMS is continuing to chisel away at higher spending associated with coding intensity,” says Tricia Neuman, executive director for the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF, a health policy nonprofit.
From Barron's ● Jan. 27, 2026
Nonato laid his chisel against the mortar and gingerly began to tap the top of the tool with a hammer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2025
"There were chisel marks in the rock to suggest someone had found another bit and then ran off with it," says Dr Clark.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2024
Died August 12, 1869: this last, the date, added later, crudely with a chisel, who even dead did not divulge where and when he had been born.
From "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner
"We used big chisels on the end of broom handles. A bit like gardening hoes. You use those to stab at it and shave stuff way," explained Roche.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026
One promising option is tungsten carbide, an Earth-abundant material already widely used in industrial machinery, cutting tools, and chisels.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 24, 2026
The marks of chisels and other hand tools are prominent across all their surfaces, which appear sleek from a distance, making for an exciting juxtaposition between material and method.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
He saw others who wanted to take a piece of it, who’d come to the metaphorical mountain with chisels in hand.
From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2024
In the window there were trays of nuts and bolts, worn-out chisels, penknives with broken blades, tarnished watches that did not even pretend to be in going order, and other miscellaneous rubbish.
From "1984" by George Orwell
Propellers were being chiseled from oak, which absorbs radar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
He continues by "mewing," a TikTok trend where people suck in their cheeks and point a finger at their jawline to emphasize their chiseled features.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Larry’s the pragmatic choice, but Luke is the romantic one, down to his handsome, chiseled features right out of a supermarket paperback.
From Salon ● Nov. 27, 2025
Farther down the Strip, I chatted with a convincing Captain America, whose chiseled jawline and sandy blond hair were betrayed only by his height, about 5-foot-10.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025
Joinville's chiseled visage is wan, his eyes haunted.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
What counts as good looking is narrowly defined: chiselled facial features and visible muscles are non-negotiables.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
He was the "full package," Mr Tracey added, "including the chiselled good looks".
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2025
He had a licence to charm on screen, with his sultry voice and suave, chiselled good looks.
From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2024
The "chiselled, intense, and hard-hitting" choreography is illuminated by Bangalter's "nervous" but "lyrical" score, wrote Amaury Jacquet in Publikart.
From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2023
The many faces of the stone had sharp edges as though they had been newly chiselled.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
“Looksmaxxing” has men hammering their jawlines, chiseling their own bone structure like Michelangelo with a front-facing camera.
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
Zhong likens this to a sculptor chiseling away at marble until the final form emerges.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 13, 2025
By reducing the cost of chiseling, Springut reasons, architects can once again embrace the decorative flourishes of carved stone.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2023
She notes that chiseling and sanding away at stone is also a much slower process than working with other media.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2022
In the dark crypts below Winterfell, a stonemason was chiseling out his father's likeness in granite.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Somewhere in the city, somebody is chiselling away at a statue of the 74-year-old.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
"I had run out of energy and I was deep in my pain cave. No matter how hard I was chiselling at it, it wasn't translating to power."
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2023
He once said of the machines that “each one stamps into paper a permanent trail of imagination through keys, hammers, cloth and dye – a softer version of chiselling words into stone”.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 2, 2017
We entered frosty courts by a secret hatchway and waved wooden racquets in majestic arcs, a ceremony akin to polar explorers chiselling out ice caves.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 18, 2016
For instance the chiselling of such men as Riccio and Cellini, has never been equalled since their time, save perhaps by Gouthière.
From Art Principles With Special Reference to Painting Together with Notes on the Illusions Produced by the Painter by Ernest Govett
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
