chopped

1. 1
   adjective

   Reduced to small bits with a knife or other blade, whether roughly or in neat cubes.

   Stir the chopped garlic into the pan once the oil is hot.

   A scattering of chopped walnuts gave the cake a pleasant crunch.

   Similardiced, minced, cut, sliced

   Oppositewhole

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of chop.

   The chef chopped the herbs finely before adding them to the broth.

   They chopped down the old oak that had been leaning over the shed.

   Note

   The verb form carries every sense of chop, not only the cook's. Wood is chopped with an axe, and a ball can be chopped downward so it bounces high. Card players who split a pot have chopped it. One spelling serves as the simple past (they chopped the prize) and as the participle (the pot was chopped), and it also stands as the 'diced' adjective.

3. 3
   adjective

   Reduced to small particles by grinding rather than by being cut by hand.

   The deli grinds fresh chopped beef for its meatballs every morning.

   He pressed the chopped pork into a dense loaf before baking.

   Similarground, minced

   Note

   A meat-counter word, used where the line between cutting and grinding blurs: chopped beef or chopped pork has usually gone through a grinder, not under a knife. With vegetables and herbs the distinction holds, so the knife-cut sense is the safe reading there. With meat, expect a fine, even texture rather than visible pieces.

4. 4
   adjectiveslang

   Fired from a job, or cut from a team or training program.

   After the merger, half the marketing department got chopped.

   He was chopped from the squad after missing two weeks of training.

   Similarfired, sacked, axed, dropped, cut

   Note

   Workplace and locker-room slang built on the idiom to get the chop, and it often keeps that verb: someone got chopped. It covers jobs, squads and training programs alike, and it frequently takes from (chopped from the squad). In formal writing, dismissed, let go or cut says the same thing without the slang edge.

5. 5
   adjectiveslang

   High from the effects of recreational drugs.

   By midnight half the crowd was chopped and barely standing.

   He showed up chopped and couldn't string a sentence together.

   Similarhigh, stoned, wasted

   Oppositesober

   Note

   Street slang for a person's condition, never the drug's: it describes someone visibly under the influence, and it usually comes after a verb (showed up chopped, was chopped by midnight). Keep it to casual talk among people who share the slang. Elsewhere, high or intoxicated says the same thing without the risk of being misread as the 'fired' meaning.

6. 6
   adjectiveslangderogatory

   Ugly, used as a derogatory insult.

   She said the outfit was straight-up chopped.

   The whole group laughed and called the mask chopped.

   Similarugly, hideous, busted

   Oppositebeautiful, gorgeous

   Note

   An insult and nothing gentler: derogatory slang aimed at a person's looks. Ugly can describe a building or a situation neutrally, but this word carries contempt for someone's appearance, so it lands as an attack even when it is said among friends. Recognize it when you hear it, and avoid it unless you mean to wound.

7. 7
   adjectiveslang

   Having its roofline lowered by horizontal trimming, reducing the vehicle's overall height.

   He drove a chopped hot rod with a roofline barely above the windows.

   The chopped coupe sat low and sleek among the other show cars.

   Note

   Hot-rod slang for surgery on the roof: the pillars are cut through and the top is lowered, which drops the whole car's height. It often travels in a fixed pair, chopped and channeled, as in Charles Beaumont and William F. Nolan's Omnibus of Speed (1958), where a '33 Ford coupe gets both treatments. Among customizers it is a term of craft, not of damage.

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