chopper

[chop-er]

noun

a person or thing that chops.

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

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

choppers, Slang. the teeth.

Informal. a helicopter.

Slang. a motorcycle.

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

verb (used without object)

Informal.

to travel by helicopter: We choppered into midtown from the airport.
to travel by motorcycle.

Origin of chopper

1545–55; 1950–55 for def 5; chop¹ + -er¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for choppers

molar, dicer, mincer, axe

Examples from the Web for choppers

Contemporary Examples of choppers

You can hear the choppers descending even if you have never set foot in the country.
A Different Kind of Vietnam Story
J.T. Price
October 9, 2014
By midday, the Ukrainian government had confirmed that two of its choppers had been downed.
Eastern Ukraine Explodes, Russian Invasion Grows More Likely
Jamie Dettmer
May 2, 2014
“They have choppers looking for them,” Sheriff Herrera says.
Convicts Hunted After Mexican Prison Break Near Border
Christine Pelisek
September 19, 2012
The choppers, which had been sold to Syria by Russia in the early 1990s, had been undergoing a refit in Russia.
U.K. Blocks Russian Cargo Shipment to Syria
Owen Matthews
June 19, 2012
Now they may lie in wait for choppers on rescue missions, says John Barry.
The Taliban’s Bait Game
John Barry
August 12, 2011

Historical Examples of choppers

He went from that work to the place where the choppers were swinging their axes.
Two Arrows
William O. Stoddard
As the chips flew into the faces of the choppers they fell dead.
Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate
Charles M. Skinner
Brigades of choppers were opening roads here and there to deceive.
The Conquest
Eva Emery Dye
Soon the woods were alive with choppers, and the trees began to fall.
Diary of an Enlisted Man
Lawrence Van Alstyne
It came out of the choppers, and we just caught the edge of it.
Little Brother
Cory Doctorow

British Dictionary definitions for choppers

chopper

noun

mainly British a small hand axe

a butcher's cleaver

a person or thing that cuts or chops

an informal name for a helicopter

mainly British a slang name for penis

a device for periodically interrupting an electric current or beam of radiation to produce a pulsed current or beamSee also vibrator (def. 2)

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

NZ a child's bicycle

obsolete, slang, mainly US a sub-machine-gun

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

Word Origin and History for choppers

chopper

1550s, "one who chops," agent noun from chop (v.1). Meaning "meat cleaver" is by 1818. Meaning "helicopter" is from 1951, Korean War military slang (cf. egg-beater); as a type of stripped-down motorcycle (originally prefered by Hell's Angels) from 1965.

choppers in Science

chopper

[chŏp′ər]

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