chopping

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of chop

plural choppings

1. The action by which something is chopped; the act of assailing something with chops.

   As soon as this danger was appreciated there followed a nervous smashing and chopping of triffids everywhere, until it occurred to someone that all that was necessary to make them harmless was the removal of the actual stinging weapon.

   1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 43

comparative more chopping · superlative most chopping

1. Shifting or changing suddenly, as the wind; also, having tumbling waves dashing against each other.

   a chopping sea

2. obsoletestout; large; plump

   Yet some prolific planet smil'd, / And gave the pair a chopping child[…]

   a. 1730, Elijah Fenton, The Widow's Wile