chopper

American  

[chop-er] / ˈtʃɒp ər /

noun

1. a person or thing that chops. chop.

2. a short ax with a large blade, used for cutting up meat, fish, etc.; butcher's cleaver.

3. a prehistoric implement made by striking flakes off one or both sides of a stone, considered the oldest known worked stone tool.

4. Slang. choppers, the teeth.

5. Informal. a helicopter.

6. Slang. a motorcycle.

7. a device for interrupting an electric current or a beam of light at regular intervals.

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verb (used without object)

1. Informal.

   1. to travel by helicopter.

      We choppered into midtown from the airport.

   2. to travel by motorcycle.

chopper British  

/ ˈtʃɒpə /

noun

1. a small hand axe

2. a butcher's cleaver

3. a person or thing that cuts or chops

4. an informal name for a helicopter

5. a slang name for penis

6. a device for periodically interrupting an electric current or beam of radiation to produce a pulsed current or beam See also vibrator

7. a type of bicycle or motorcycle with very high handlebars and an elongated saddle

8. a child's bicycle

9. obsolete a sub-machine-gun

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chopper Scientific  

/ chŏp′ər /

1. A crudely flaked, unifacial core tool, especially one associated with the Oldowan stone culture of the early Paleolithic Period.

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Etymology

Origin of chopper

1545–55; 1950–55 chopper for def. 5; chop ¹ + -er ¹

Example Sentences

The Coast Guard swimmer who jumped time and again from a chopper into the raging waters of the July 2025 Texas flood, saving 165 lives, was also honored.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 25, 2026

“The only thing you see is the chopper. Sometimes, you’re rotating because it’s a line, and you just see the chopper going around and around.”

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2026

"Five more minutes, and I would have left you," the pilot tells the reporters as they clamber back in, the chopper stuttering up and banking over the town's remains.

From Barron's • Nov. 18, 2025

"And no-one went to the spot that the chopper was hovering over until later that day when the police arrived."

From BBC • Oct. 28, 2025

In the distance I heard what sounded like a chopper but could have been a generator.

From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers