Heading
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 131. Both were marched off to chokee, and I have no doubt got punished.
1877. Besant and Rice, This Son of Vulcan, II., ch. vi., p. 223. Find out this stranger, and, by God, I'm a justice of the peace, and I'll cool his heels in chokee for a month.
1884. Daily News, Sept. 24, p. 3, col. 1. Wright . . . would get two or three days' choky (i.e., bread and water).
2. (prison).—A cell, specially a punishment cell. For synonyms, see Clinch.
1889. Answers, 30 March, p. 280, col. 2. But I am reminded that I have not yet described that horrible institution known as the dark cell—chokey, we convicts called it.
Chonkeys, subs. (common).—See
quot.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 208. Chonkeys, or a kind of mincemeat baked in crust.
Chop, subs. (old).—1. A blow.
Once (in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries) literary; and still
respectable in a 'chopping'—i.e.,
a beating 'sea.'
2. An exchange; a barter. Cf., Chop and change.
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 140. I purchased, or more properly speaking, had a chop with a wooden bowl maker from Chesham.
Verb (colloquial).—1. To exchange; to barter: as, to chop logic = to give argument for argument; and to chop stories = to 'cap' one anecdote with another. Also to change quarters: as 'the wind chopped round to the north.' Cf., Swap.
1554. Latimer, wks. (1845), II., 433. Shall we go about to chop away this good occasion, which God offereth us. [m.]
1693. Shadwell, Volunteers, IV. (1720), iv., 467. Horses that are jades . . . may be chopt away or sold in Smithfield. [m.]
1871. City Press, Jan. 21. 'Curiosities of Street Literature.' He hangs out in Monmouth-court, And wears a pair of blue-black breeches, Where all the 'Polly Cox's crew' do resort, To chop their swag for badly-printed dying speeches.
2. To eat a chop.
1841. Mrs. Gore, Cecil, xx. I would rather have chopped at the 'Blue Posts' as I once did, fifteen years before. [m.]
1887. Sala, Illustrated London News, Feb. 5, 144. I went one day . . . to chop at the 'Cock.' [m.]
3. (colonial).—See quot.
1871. Sheffield Telegraph, April. West African (New Calabar) slang for cannibalistic practice. He's chopped, i.e., he is eaten.
Chop and change, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Ups and downs; vicissitudes; changes of fortune.
1759-67. Sterne, Tristam Shandy [ed. 1772], I., ch. xi. [Surnames] which, in a course of years, have generally undergone as many chops and changes as their owners.
1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, xvi. At last we were all arranged . . . although there were several chops and changes about until the order of precedence could be correctly observed.
1845. Hood, To Kitchener, iii. Like Fortune, full of chops and changes.
1849-50. Thackeray, Pendennis, III., p. 423. I have heard of all that has happened, and all the chops and changes that have taken place during my absence,
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., 238. The accounts of such transactions for a series of years, with all their chops and changes.
Verbal phr., trs. and intrs.—To barter; buy and sell; exchange; change tactics; veer frequently from one side to the other; vacillate, etc.
1485. Digby Myst. (1882), v., 641. I . . . choppe and chaunge with Symonye, and take large yiftes. [m.]
