chiselling
Beyond its literal meaning of shaping stone or wood with a chisel, chiselling in slang refers to cheating, swindling, or cutting corners to gain an unfair advantage.
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Beyond its literal meaning of shaping stone or wood with a chisel, chiselling in slang refers to cheating, swindling, or cutting corners to gain an unfair advantage. To chisel someone is to defraud them through petty trickery or persistent small deceits — not quite the grand con, but the steady, sneaky kind of dishonesty that erodes trust over time. The word has a satisfying grittiness to it, evoking the slow, deliberate nature of the cheat.
Everyone at the market knew he'd been chiselling customers on the weights for years before anyone finally reported him.
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Show 1 more dictionary-style sense (imported)
A piece of work produced using a chisel.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
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Semantically related
- chisel in77%
(intransitive, slang) To unfairly push in on (something); to gain a role in (something unsavory); to acquire a partial interest in (something) through deceit.
- chiseler74%
(informal) A cheat; a swindler; a con artist.
- chisel in67%
(intransitive) To barge in on something; to be a third wheel; to insinuate oneself into a situation or relationship; to get oneself involved in something.
- chiseler60%
One who uses a chisel for carving.