chopstick

[chop-stik]

noun

one of a pair of thin, tapered sticks, often of wood or ivory, held in one hand between the thumb and fingers and used chiefly in China, Japan, and other Asian countries for lifting food to the mouth.

Origin of chopstick

1690–1700; Chinese Pidgin English chop quick (see chop-chop) + stick¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for chopstick

Contemporary Examples of chopstick

Poke center of Italian sausages with chopstick to make well, fill with chocolate syrup and twist the open end of the sausage.
Epic Meal Empire’s Meat Monstrosities: From the Bacon Spider to the Cinnabattleship
Harley Morenstein
July 26, 2014

Historical Examples of chopstick

Anybody who can make a shoe-peg or wooden toothpick can make a chopstick.
Punchinello Vol. II., No. 30, October 22, 1870
Various
One may search in vain for the trace of any object in the nature of a chopstick in Central or South America.
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly,
Various
It is to be hoped that the chopstick may ultimately be adopted here instead of the knife and fork.
Punchinello Vol. II., No. 30, October 22, 1870
Various

Word Origin and History for chopstick

also chop-stick, 1690s, sailors' partial translation of Chinese k'wai tse, variously given as "fast ones" or "nimble boys," first element from pidgin English chop, from Cantonese kap "urgent." Chopsticks, the two-fingered piano exercise, is first attested 1893, probably from the resemblance of the fingers to chopsticks.