Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of a pair of slender sticks made especially of wood or ivory, held between the thumb and fingers and used as an eating utensil in Asian countries and in restaurants serving Asian food.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A (single) particular East Asian eating utensil, used in pairs and held in the hand, the utensil is a stick, usually made of wood, of approximately 23cm (~10") in length.
  • noun ethnic slur an Asian person

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one of a pair of slender sticks used as oriental tableware to eat food with

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Chinese Pidgin English chop, quick; see chop-chop + stick (on the model of Mandarin kuàizi, chopstick : kuài, chopstick (from kuài, quick, taboo replacement of earlier zhù, chopstick, used by boatmen to avoid saying the homonym zhù, to stop) + -zi, n. suff.; see gyoza).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Chinese Pidgin English chop ("quick") (compare chop-chop) + stick.

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