Library / English Dictionary

CHISEL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: chiselled    , chiselling   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An edge tool with a flat steel blade with a cutting edge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("chisel" is a kind of...):

edge tool (any cutting tool with a sharp cutting edge (as a chisel or knife or plane or gouge))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chisel"):

burin (a chisel of tempered steel with a sharp point; used for engraving)

cold chisel; set chisel (narrow chisel made of steel; used to cut stone or bricks)

drove; drove chisel (a stonemason's chisel with a broad edge for dressing stone)

firmer chisel (a chisel with a thin blade for woodworking)

ripping chisel (a long chisel with a slightly bent cutting end; used for heavy prying or cleaning mortises)

wood chisel (a chisel for working wood; it is either struck with a mallet or pushed by hand)

Derivation:

chisel (carve with a chisel)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Carve with a chisel

Example:

chisel the marble

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "chisel" is one way to...):

carve; chip at (engrave or cut by chipping away at a surface)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

chisel (an edge tool with a flat steel blade with a cutting edge)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deprive somebody of something by deceit

Example:

They chiseled me out of my money

Synonyms:

cheat; chisel; rip off

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "chisel" is one way to...):

victimise; victimize (make a victim of)

"Chisel" entails doing...:

cozen; deceive; delude; lead on (be false to; be dishonest with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "chisel"):

beguile; hoodwink; juggle (influence by slyness)

welch; welsh (cheat by avoiding payment of a gambling debt)

whipsaw (victimize, especially in gambling or negotiations)

beat; bunk (avoid paying)

bilk (cheat somebody out of what is due, especially money)

gip; gyp ((sometimes offensive) to cheat or swindle)

bunco; con; defraud; diddle; goldbrick; hornswoggle; mulct; nobble; rook; scam; short-change; swindle; victimize (deprive of by deceit)

fleece; gazump; hook; overcharge; pluck; plume; rob; soak; surcharge (rip off; ask an unreasonable price)

cozen (cheat or trick)

gazump (raise the price of something after agreeing on a lower price)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody of something

Derivation:

chiseler; chiseller (a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud

Example:

Who's chiseling on the side?

Synonyms:

cheat; chisel

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "chisel" is one way to...):

cozen; deceive; delude; lead on (be false to; be dishonest with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "chisel"):

job (profit privately from public office and official business)

shark (play the shark; act with trickery)

rig; set up (arrange the outcome of by means of deceit)

cozen (act with artful deceit)

crib (use a crib, as in an exam)

cook; fake; falsify; fudge; manipulate; misrepresent; wangle (tamper, with the purpose of deception)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

chiseler; chiseller (a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The German Shorthaired Pointer is a clean-cut, well-balanced, hunting dog with a chiseled head and large nose.

(German Shorthaired Pointer, NCI Thesaurus)

If he were insane, however, his was a very cool and collected insanity: I had never seen that handsome-featured face of his look more like chiselled marble than it did just now, as he put aside his snow-wet hair from his forehead and let the firelight shine free on his pale brow and cheek as pale, where it grieved me to discover the hollow trace of care or sorrow now so plainly graved.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Holmes pried it open with his chisel.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Over the low, heavily-lintelled door, in the centre of this old part, is chiseled the date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams and stonework are really much older than this.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Miss Temple had looked down when he first began to speak to her; but she now gazed straight before her, and her face, naturally pale as marble, appeared to be assuming also the coldness and fixity of that material; especially her mouth, closed as if it would have required a sculptor's chisel to open it, and her brow settled gradually into petrified severity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Finally, I will assuredly give some account of the toxodon, the giant ten-foot guinea pig, with projecting chisel teeth, which we killed as it drank in the gray of the morning by the side of the lake.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)