plural chips
1
a
: a small usually thin and flat piece (as of wood or stone) cut, struck, or flaked off
b
: a small piece of food: such as
(1)
: a small, thin, crisp, usually salty piece of food typically prepared by frying, baking, or drying
banana chips
especially
: potato chip see also corn chip
(2)
(3)
: a small often cone-shaped bit of food often used for baking
chocolate chips
c
: a small card displaying a paint color or a range of paint colors available for purchase
fabric swatches and paint chips
2
: something small, worthless, or trivial
3
a
: one of the counters used as a token for money in poker and other games
b
chips plural
: money
—used especially in the phrase in the chips
The beginning was always characterized by careless haste in the expectation of landing in the chips, …—
William Kittredge
William Kittredge
c
: something valuable that can be used for advantage in negotiation or trade
a bargaining chip
4
: a piece of dried dung
—usually used in combination
cow chip
5
: a flaw left after a chip has been broken off
6
b
: a small wafer of semiconductor material that forms the base for an integrated circuit
8
: microarray
DNA chips
chipped; chipping
1
a
: to cut or hew with an edged tool
b(1)
: to cut or break (a small piece) from something
(2)
: to cut or break a fragment from
chip a tooth
(3)
: to cut into chips
chip a tree stump
3
: to hit (a return in tennis) with backspin
Examples of chip in a Sentence
Noun
The cup has a chip in it.
wood chips were spread over the ground between the plants
Verb
I bit into something hard and chipped my tooth.
He fell and chipped a bone in his knee.
The paint had chipped off.
He chipped away the ice from the car's windshield.
The sculptor chipped away bits of stone.
The golfer chipped the ball onto the green.
She chipped the soccer ball over the goalie's head.
He chipped a pass to his teammate.
The golfer chipped onto the green.
Recent Examples on the Web
Preston Fore, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2025
The pancake menu includes all the hits, from chocolate chip and pecan to blueberry, strawberry, and banana.
—Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 24 Oct. 2025
Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 25 Oct. 2025
Decades later, in 1956, the masterpiece suffered another assault when a visitor hurled a stone at the painting, chipping pigment near her left elbow.
—Barney Henderson, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for chip
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Noun
In terms of competition, though, Huawei is the alpha dog in Chinese AI chips, shipping between 300,000 and 400,000 of its Ascend AI chips last year, compared to just north of 10,000 units from Cambricon.
—Preston Fore, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2025
The pancake menu includes all the hits, from chocolate chip and pecan to blueberry, strawberry, and banana.
—Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 24 Oct. 2025
Verb
Look for ones made with borosilicate or tempered glass that are designed to be sturdier and less prone to chipping or breaking.
—Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 25 Oct. 2025
Decades later, in 1956, the masterpiece suffered another assault when a visitor hurled a stone at the painting, chipping pigment near her left elbow.
—Barney Henderson, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for chip
Cite this Entry
“Chip.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chip. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
chip
1 of 2 noun1
: a small thin flat piece (as of wood, stone, or glass) broken off : flake
2
3
a
: a counter used in poker
b
plural
: money sense 1c
in the chips
4
: a flaw left after a small piece has been broken off
a cup with a chip in it
5
: a very small slice of silicon containing electronic circuits (as for a computer)
chip
2 of 2 verb
chipped; chipping
1
: to cut or break a chip from something
chip a cup
2
: to break off in small pieces
Medical Definition
chip
noun
: microarray
When exposed to a sample of unknown DNA, the probes on the chip bind to their complementary strands, thereby reading the sequences in the sample.—Jeff Wheelwright, Discover
Jeff Wheelwright, DiscoverLove words? Need even more definitions?
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