chump

be off (one's) chump

To be crazy. In the UK, "chump" is a slang term for "head." You're off your chump if you think that plan will work.
See also: chump, off

chump change

A tiny, trifling, and/or inconsequential amount of money. To most people, $2,000 is a lot to spend on anything, but to the country's mega rich, it is merely chump change. I'm only getting paid chump change for all this hard work I'm doing.
See also: change, chump

off (one's) chump

Crazy or insane. He must be off his chump to pay that much money for that old car. Am I completely off my chump for starting a business in this economy?
See also: chump, off
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

chump change

A trivial sum of money, a trivial matter. For example, Dave was sick of working for chump change; he wanted a decent salary, or Don't put that on the agenda; it's chump change. This expression uses chump in the sense of "a fool or sucker who should be ignored." [Slang; 1960s] Also see chicken feed.
See also: change, chump

off one's head

Also, off one's nut or rocker or trolley or chump . Crazy, out of one's mind, as in You're off your head if you think I'll pay your debts, or I think Jerry's gone off his nut over that car, or When she said we had to sleep in the barn we thought she was off her rocker, or The old man's been off his trolley for at least a year. The expression using head is colloquial and dates from the mid-1800s, nut has been slang for "head" since the mid-1800s; rocker, dating from the late 1800s, may allude to an elderly person falling from a rocking chair; trolley, also dating from the late 1800s, may be explained by George Ade's use of it in Artie (1896): "Any one that's got his head full of the girl proposition's liable to go off his trolley at the first curve." The last, chump, is also slang for "head" and was first recorded in 1859.
See also: head, off
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

off your chump

crazy. British informal
The literal sense of chump meaning ‘a broad, thick block of wood’ led in the mid 19th century to its humorous use to mean ‘head’, with the implication of ‘blockhead’.
See also: chump, off
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

chump

n. a stupid person; a gullible person. See if that chump will loan you some money.

chump change

n. a small amount of money; the kind of salary or amount of money a chump would work for. I refuse to work for chump change! I want a real job.
See also: change, chump

off one’s chump

mod. crazy; nuts. Am I off my chump, or did that car suddenly disappear?
See also: chump, off
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

go off one's chump/head/rocker, to

To go crazy; to become insane. The oldest of these three expressions is “off his head,” which was current although slangy by the time Thomas Hood wrote The Turtles (1844), “He was ‘off his head.’” The word chump became British slang for “head” in the late nineteenth century; subsequently, “off his chump” was used several times by Shaw, in Pygmalion and Heartbreak House. Off one’s rocker comes from the same period, but its origin is more puzzling. One writer suggests it may indirectly allude to the elderly, associated with both rocking chairs and diminished mental capacity. Yet another variant is to go off one’s trolley, which alludes to a motorman getting off a streetcar to reposition the trolley wheel on the overhead wire that carried electric current to the car’s motor. To be disconnected from this power source came to mean becoming crazy, a usage dating from the late 1890s. With the demise of streetcars in many American cities, this expression is heard less often today.
See also: chump, go, head, off
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • be off (one's) chump
  • off (one's) chump
  • off one’s chump
  • off your chump
  • (I've) got to take off
  • be off (one's) nut
  • be off (one's) rocker
  • be shouting (one's) head off
  • be shouting your head off
  • be off with you
References in periodicals archive
He narrated that he talked to Chump on the phone on Jan.
'' When I asked Pc Chump for his name - and I still find this hard to believe - he stepped in front of my car, presumably to prevent me driving off, and carried out a vehicle registration check.
Because chumps shift their weight from one foot to the
I could take bits and pieces of "Dump that Chump!" and apply it in my place and say that I have dated some chumps in my day.
Does Viscount Chump suddenly inherit the earldom and become an earl, as the earldom is apparently vacant?
Nonetheless she needed me to agree that she was a hero not a chump. We need one another.
On "The Heart Part 4," Kendrick raps: "Donald Trump is a chump, know how we feel, punk / Tell 'em that God comin' / And Russia need a replay button, y'all up to somethin' / Electoral votes look like memorial votes / But America's truth ain't ignorin' the votes."
The AD Sportwereld wrote: "The Dutch national team perished in the World Cup final - thanks largely to a chump of a referee.
MICHAEL BALL: He's the chump for carrying on the culture of violence at Man Citeh.
The popular TV presenter has teamed up with Scots dog Chump for the BBC's Underdog Show.
ASHAMED as I am to be drawn into the love lives of the rich and not-so-famous, I couldn't help but feel some empathy towards the ex-fiancee of Celebrity Big Brother chump Preston this week.
Of course, that's just chump change to billionaire Soros.
Granted, Fox News' chump change ratings--like those of all the cable news channels--is more a testament to audience fragmentation than to the overriding will of the American people; but if news junkies really are fed up with palaver, they've got a funny way of showing it.
Some people have criticized these contributions--suggesting that $25 million is little more than chump change to multibillionaires such as Gates.
To the Washington bureaucrats, a few billion dollars is just chump change.