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when the chips are down

when the chip are down
W w

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • UK Pronunciation
    • UK IPA
    • [hwen, wen stressed th ee chip ahr doun]
    • /ʰwɛn, wɛn stressed ði tʃɪp ɑr daʊn/
    • /wen ðə tʃɪps ə(r) daʊn/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [hwen, wen stressed th ee chip ahr doun]
    • /ʰwɛn, wɛn stressed ði tʃɪp ɑr daʊn/

Definitions of when the chips are down words

  • noun when the chips are down a small, slender piece, as of wood, separated by chopping, cutting, or breaking. 1
  • noun when the chips are down a very thin slice or small piece of food, candy, etc.: chocolate chips. 1
  • noun when the chips are down a mark or flaw made by the breaking off or gouging out of a small piece: This glass has a chip. 1
  • noun when the chips are down any of the small round disks, usually of plastic or ivory, used as tokens for money in certain gambling games, as roulette or poker; counter. 1
  • noun when the chips are down Also called microchip. Electronics. a tiny slice of semiconducting material, generally in the shape of a square a few millimeters long, cut from a larger wafer of the material, on which a transistor or an entire integrated circuit is formed. Compare microprocessor. 1
  • noun when the chips are down a small cut or uncut piece of a diamond or crystal. 1
See all 34 definitions of when the chips are down

Information block about the term

Origin of when the chips are down

First appearance:

before 1300
One of the 15% oldest English words
1300-50; (noun) Middle English chip (compare Old English cipp plowshare, beam, i.e., piece cut off); (v.) late Middle English chippen (compare Old English -cippian in forcippian to cut off); akin to Middle Low German, Middle Dutch kippen to chip eggs, hatch

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for When the chips are down

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Full grammatical hierarchy of When the chips are down

when the chips are down popularity

A common word. It’s meaning is known to most children of preschool age. About 96% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word.
Most Europeans know this English word. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between "mom" and "screwdriver".

when the chips are down usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

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