chop

bust someone's chops nag or criticize someone. North American informal

bust your chops exert yourself. North American informal

chop and change change your opinions or behaviour repeatedly and abruptly, often for no good reason. British informal

☞ Both chop and change originally had the sense of 'barter', 'exchange', or 'buy and sell', but as this sense of chop became dated the meaning of the whole expression shifted to its present one.

chop logic argue in a tiresomely pedantic way; quibble.

☞ Chop is here used in the 16th-century sense meaning 'bandy words'. This sense is now obsolete, and the sense of chop used in this phrase was later wrongly understood as 'cut something into small pieces'.

lick (or smack) your chops: see lick (or smack) your lips atlick.

not much chop no good; not up to much. Australian & New Zealand informal

☞ The sense of chop in this expression originated in the Hindi word chāp meaning 'official stamp'. Europeans in the Far East extended the use of the word to cover documents such as passports to which an official stamp or impression was attached and in China it came to mean 'branded goods'. From this, in the late 19th century, chop was used to refer to something that had 'class' or had been validated as genuine or good.

1947Dan DavinThe Gorse Blooms Pale I know it's not been much chop so far but we're only getting started.