I. chip 1 S2 W3 /tʃɪp/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: cipp , cyp 'small piece of wood' , from Latin cippus 'sharp post' ]
1 . FOOD
a) British English [usually plural] a long thin piece of potato cooked in oil SYN French fry American English :
fish and chips
a bag of chips
b) American English [usually plural] a thin flat round piece of food such as potato cooked in very hot oil and eaten cold SYN crisp British English :
a bag of potato chips
2 . COMPUTER a small piece of ↑ silicon that has a set of complicated electrical connections on it and is used to store and ↑ process information in computers:
the age of the silicon chip
chip technology
3 . PIECE a small piece of wood, stone, metal etc that has been broken off something:
Wood chips covered the floor of the workshop.
a chocolate chip cookie (=one that contains small pieces of chocolate)
4 . MARK a small hole or mark on a plate, cup etc where a piece has broken off
chip in
There’s a chip in this bowl.
5 . have a chip on your shoulder to easily become offended or angry because you think you have been treated unfairly in the past
6 . when the chips are down spoken in a serious or difficult situation, especially one in which you realize what is really true or important:
When the chips are down, you’ve only got yourself to depend on.
7 . be a chip off the old block informal to be very similar to your mother or father in appearance or character
8 . GAME [usually plural] a small flat coloured piece of plastic used in games such as ↑ poker or ↑ blackjack to represent a particular amount of money
9 . SPORT ( also chip shot , chip kick ) a hit in golf, or a kick in football or ↑ rugby , that makes the ball go high into the air for a short distance
10 . have had your chips British English informal to be in a situation in which you no longer have any hope of improvement
⇨ ↑ blue chip , ⇨ cash in your chips at ↑ cash in (3)
II. chip 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle chipped , present participle chipping )
1 . ACCIDENTALLY BREAK (SOMETHING) [I, T] if you chip something, or if it chips, a small piece of it breaks off accidentally:
Gary fell and chipped one of his front teeth.
He chipped a bone in his knee and was carried off the pitch.
These plates chip really easily.
chip off
The paint had chipped off the gate.
2 . REMOVE SOMETHING [I, T always + adv/prep] to remove something, especially something hard that is covering a surface, by hitting it with a tool so that small pieces break off:
Archaeologists were carefully chipping away at the rock.
Chip out the plaster with a steel chisel.
3 . SPORT [transitive] to hit a golf ball or kick a football or a ↑ rugby ball so that it goes high into the air for a short distance:
United scored just before half-time when Adcock cleverly chipped the ball over the keeper.
4 . POTATOES [transitive] British English to cut potatoes into thin pieces ready to be cooked in hot oil
chip away at something phrasal verb
to gradually make something less effective or destroy it:
Writers such as Voltaire and Diderot were chipping away at the foundations of society.
Fears about the future chipped away at her sense of well-being.
chip in phrasal verb
1 . to interrupt a conversation by saying something that adds more detail
chip in with
Other committee members chipped in with suggestions.
‘It won’t be easy,’ Jeff chipped in.
I’d just like to chip in, Bill, if I might.
2 . if each person in a group chips in, they each give a small amount of money so that they can buy something together:
We all chipped in to buy Amy a graduation present.
chip in (with) something
Fifty-two people in the music industry each chipped in $250 apiece.
III. mi ‧ cro ‧ chip /ˈmaɪkrəʊˌtʃɪp $ -kroʊ-/ BrE AmE ( also chip ) noun [countable]
a very small piece of ↑ silicon containing a set of electronic parts, which is used in computers and other machines:
Japan’s largest producer of microchips
the microchip industry