chisel

[ chiz-uhl ]

/ ˈtʃɪz əl /

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See synonyms for: chisel / chiseled / chiselled on Thesaurus.com

noun

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.

chisel plow.

Chisel, Astronomy. the constellation Caelum.

verb (used with object), chis·eled, chis·el·ing or (especially British) chis·elled, chis·el·ling.

to cut, shape, or fashion by or as if by carving with a chisel.

to cheat or swindle (someone): He chiseled me out of fifty dollars.

to get (something) by cheating or trickery: He chiseled fifty dollars out of me.

verb (used without object), chis·eled, chis·el·ing or (especially British) chis·elled, chis·el·ling.

to work with a chisel.

to trick; cheat.

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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

OTHER WORDS FROM chisel

chis·el-like, chis·el·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use chisel in a sentence

Using a stitching groover and a diamond chisel, which are relatively inexpensive, can be quite helpful when it comes to getting clean stitching.
Everything you need to know to start leatherworking|Sandra Gutierrez G.|February 19, 2021|Popular-Science
In 1902, deep in the Mojave Desert in California, a man named William Henry Schmidt began chiseling.
The Mole Man’s Tunnel to Nowhere|Nina Strochlic|November 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
An artist in New Mexico has spent decades chiseling out fantastical caves from the mountains, one pickaxe swing at a time.
New Mexico’s Amazing Man-Made Caves|Nina Strochlic|December 12, 2013|DAILY BEAST
There was in both the same irony of lip line, the same fair chiseling of chin and nostril and brow, the same weariness of eye.
Zut and Other Parisians|Guy Wetmore Carryl

Fire lapped the sculptured screen inside the western doors, and the lovely lavish chiseling has become a blurred, amorphous mass.
How France Built Her Cathedrals|Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly
From Ruskin: "The sharpest, finest chiseling, and patientest fusing;" "distantest relationships;" "sorrowfulest spectacles."
An English Grammar|W. M. Baskervill and J. W. Sewell
This chiseling out of streets in such abrupt fashion is puzzling to the person with notions of how tropical people behave.
The Pacific Triangle|Sydney Greenbie
A red-breasted woodpecker was chiseling out a nursery in a tall sycamore at the border of a woodland.
Our Bird Comrades|Leander S. (Leander Sylvester) Keyser

British Dictionary definitions for chisel

chisel

/ (ˈtʃɪzəl) /

noun

a hand tool for working wood, consisting of a flat steel blade with a cutting edge attached to a handle of wood, plastic, etc. It is either struck with a mallet or used by hand
a similar tool without a handle for working stone or metal

verb -els, -elling or -elled or US -els, -eling or -eled

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

Word Origin for chisel

C14: via Old French, from Vulgar Latin cīsellus (unattested), from Latin caesus cut, from caedere to cut

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

chisel

Origin of chisel

OTHER WORDS FROM chisel

Words related to chisel

How to use chisel in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for chisel

Word Origin for chisel