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Glite Dictionary
to chip off

to chip off

3 3.2
Break a small piece from something by hitting or pressing it
  • phrasal verb
  • /tʃɪp ɔf/
translation icon : desprender
  • He stopped to chip off a spiral shell with his clasp knife.
  • paint chipped off
  • chipping off pieces
  • knock the chip off

Oh, God, I just picture your teeth chipping off halfway.

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Examples

  • While renovating my house, I chipped off a small piece of the old tile accidentally.

  • It's really thick in places, but that makes it much easier to chip off.

    Blog text (15)

  • The rock is a piece of a special meteorite which was chipped off upon impact 65 million years ago.

    Super Mario Bros. (1993)

  • My sister nodded slightly, fiddling with a piece of wood that had chipped off the swing.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • By chipping off both sides, she’d created a jagged cutting edge.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • He used a chisel to chip off a piece of wood for his craft project.

  • The sculptor carefully chipped off fragments of stone to reveal the statue beneath.

Synonyms

to chip
vsto chip off
104 2.3

To break off a small piece of an object

is the same meaning but used as a phrasal form
to break off
vsto chip off
28 2.8

To make a piece come away from something by hitting or bending it

focuses on small pieces broken by impact or pressure
to splinter
vsto chip off
21 3.9

To break into many small, sharp pieces like wood or glass

involves removing a small piece rather than splitting into sharp fragments
to flake
vsto chip off
12 2.6

To come off in thin flat pieces or make something lose thin flat pieces

is about removing a single small piece by impact or pressure
to snap off
vsto chip off
9 3.5

To break a piece from something with a quick, sharp movement

is the same act but not limited to sudden motion
to flake off
vsto chip off
3 3.9

To come off a surface in small thin pieces

is caused by impact or pressure rather than gradual surface loss
to sliver
vsto chip off
3 5.1

To break or cut something into thin narrow pieces

refers to removing a small piece rather than making many thin strips
to spall
vsto chip off
  • Specialized
1 9.7

To break off in small pieces from stone or concrete

is the general action not limited to hard surfaces

Antonyms

to add
∞ 1.0

Include something extra to make something larger or better

join
11 2.9

The place where two things meet and are fixed together

How Much

to shatter
72 2.8
to break off
28 2.8
to crack
311 1.0
to chip off
3 3.2
nick
200 3.6

Surface Forms

chip off infinitive
chipped off past
chipped off past participle
chipping off present participle
chips off third person singular

Morphology

chip + off

The meaning is directly derivable from 'chip' (to break away a small piece) plus the particle 'off' (away from a surface), yielding the predictable sense 'to break off a small piece from a whole'. This verb+particle pattern is compositionally regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The verb chip off comes from the simple image of hitting a hard object so a small piece, a chip, comes off the larger surface. That's why it means 'to break off a small piece' today.