chop suey
3
3.4
- noun
- /ˈtʃɑp ˈsuːi/
:
chop suey
- At the local Chinese restaurant, I ordered a delicious plate of chop suey with chicken and vegetables.
- eat chop suey
Examples
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I'II buy you some chop suey afterwards.
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Let's get a bowl of chop suey, and we'll rewrite the show.
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Let's get some chop suey.
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Well, you can get most anything out of a bowl of chop suey.
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One chop suey with fried eggs on top.
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Hey, Pop, how's the chop suey around here?
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After nearly choking on my chop suey, I said, "Er, yeah."
Blog text (3) -
He's through work also, and we go around to the China Bowl, off of Times Square, for some chop suey and a beer.
Fiction book (1995) -
Buy everybody chop suey.
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Like, how about chop suey or chow mein?
Fiction book (1990)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The element 'chop' (to cut) plus 'suey' (historically a term for pork) gives a partial clue that this is a meat/food item—learners might infer 'chopped pork' or a meat dish. However, 'chop suey' is a conventionalized dish name (Chinese‑American stir‑fry often with vegetables and not strictly pork), and 'suey' is not a productive English word, so the precise culinary meaning is not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Chop suey may come from an old Chinese phrase meaning 'mixed pieces' or 'leftovers', with chop and suey showing the idea of small cut bits. One popular story says Chinese cooks in the United States quickly fried leftover meat and vegetables together, so chop suey came to mean a mixed stir-fry dish.