chop shop
12
9.3
- noun
- /tʃɑp ʃɑp/
- NSFW
:
desguace ilegal
- I'm standing in front of an East L.A. garage... ...which is the latest link in a chain of six chop shops busted by the L.A.P.D... ...in the last three days.
- running a chop shop
- chop shop processing stolen cars
- chop shop for stolen vehicles
This Dominator EE Black that Max Nomics sent to our chop shop is now packing.
- This Dominator EE Black that Max Nomics sent to our chop shop is now packing.
Examples
-
You do understand that we questioned every mechanic and chop shop operator in a five-mile grid?
-
The police discovered a chop shop where stolen cars were dismantled for parts.
-
Somebody might mistake this place for a chop shop.
-
We're busy in the chop shop.
Fiction book (1990) -
Is this the illegal chop shop?
-
Want me to take 'em back to the chop shop for an overhaul?
-
Wu runs a chop shop.
-
There's a chop shop around the corner.
Fiction book (2000) -
A chop shop wouldn't give you more than a hundred forty for a junker like that.
Fiction book (1992) -
He gave detailed information as to the location of the chop shop where the Mercedes had been taken to be banged out, bondoed, and repainted.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
1
9.3
An illegal garage that takes stolen cars apart to sell the parts
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'chop' (to cut/dismantle) and 'shop' (a workplace) give a clear partial cue that this is a place where things are taken apart, so a learner could guess a workshop for cutting/dismantling. However, the specific sense — an illegal garage that dismantles stolen vehicles for parts — and the illicit/stolen nuance are not directly derivable from the constituents, so the full meaning is not predictable without exposure.
Etymology
The noun chop shop comes from the image of a garage where people cut cars into pieces. It joins chop (to cut up) and shop (a garage), because thieves would 'chop' stolen cars and sell the parts, so the phrase means 'an illegal garage that dismantles stolen vehicles to sell the parts'.