chopper

American  

[chop-er] / ˈtʃɒp ər /

noun

1. a person or thing that chops.

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

But it also attracted scores of photographers, visual artists, taggers and scene kids who documented the unruly energy brimming over these grim industrial landscapes, lighted up with flames and police chopper spotlights.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026

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

Monaco was up and in and the other guys who had come in with the chopper were piling back in.

From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers