"C" Slang

chip damage

Gaming

When you block a special or super move you usually still take a sliver of damage. It's tiny per hit, but on a near-empty life bar it can finish you off through your own guard.

chips

General

Thick-cut fried potato chips (fries); 'fish and chips' is the classic Kiwi takeaway.

chiquitín

General

An affectionate term for a very small child or a little one.

chiraq

Street

A nickname for Chicago — specifically the South and West Side — that frames the city as a war zone. Born from the grim stat that Chicago was outpacing US troop deaths in Iraq. Drill rappers wear it as a badge; city officials hate it.

chirpse

General

To flirt, chat up or hit on someone. London-specific — you 'chirpse a girl' the way someone in another city would 'pull' or 'spit game'. Usually playful in tone, often used about teenagers' attempts.

chirpsing

British Mle

Flirting with someone, usually with a fairly obvious or persistent chat-up attempt.

chiseler

General

Pure Dublin slang for a kid — small one, young fella, ankle-biter. Affectionate, working-class, heard everywhere from the inner city to Fair City. Nothing to do with the American 'chiseler' meaning swindler — totally different word.

chit

General

A formal written request — for leave, off-base housing, special liberty, light duty, whatever you need permission for. You 'put in a chit' and wait for it to come back signed or denied. The bureaucratic spine of military life: nothing happens without one.

chit-chat

Street

A sanctioned beating administered by a gang or car to discipline a member for breaking rules.

chivo

General

Slang for a bicycle (also called 'faster').

cho

General

A dismissive or exasperated exclamation, like 'come on!' or 'nonsense!'. Also 'cha'.

chock-a-block

Street

Crammed full to capacity; often clipped to 'chocka'.

chocka

General

Completely full or packed out. Used for places (pubs, trains, town) and for being stuffed after a meal. Short for 'chock-a-block', a nautical term from when ship blocks were hauled tight together — pure Liverpool docker heritage in one word.

choi-ae

Internet

A term borrowed from Korean/Japanese fan culture for one's absolute favorite idol, equivalent to an ult bias. Written 최애 in Korean.

choice

General

An expression meaning good, cool or awesome; also used as an interjection of approval.

choice as

General

An intensified 'choice', meaning excellent or awesome.

choke

Gaming

To collapse mentally at the crucial moment and blow a winning position.

choke and puke

General

A truck-stop restaurant or roadside greasy spoon — the kind where the coffee's been on since dawn and the gravy's a war crime. Drivers say it with affection. You stop, you eat, you regret it, you do it again tomorrow.

choker

General

A length of wire rope or chain looped round a beam, log or load so a crane can lift it — the loop tightens (chokes) under tension and grips the load. Standard rigging kit on iron jobs and in logging, where 'choker setter' is an entry-level job hooking logs to the cable.

chokey

General

British slang for prison, and more specifically for solitary confinement or the punishment block. Roald Dahl made it famous to a generation via Miss Trunchbull's torture cupboard in Matilda, but the word's been knocking around English since the British Raj.

cholo

General

A young man of the Chicano barrio/gang subculture, with a distinctive dress and style; can be pejorative.

choo

Street

A Brooklyn-based drill set positioned against the Woos. You can't talk Pop Smoke-era NYC drill without naming the Choos — the rivalry is the engine half the catalogue runs on.

chop

Internet

Sideways, whipsawing price movement that lacks a clear trend, frustrating both bulls and bears. Also 'choppy.'

chop knuckle

Street

A friendly, informal request or offer of a fist bump, usually as a sign of approval or camaraderie.

chop life

Street

Built from "chop" (eat/consume) and "life," the phrase means living it up and enjoying every pleasure life offers, without holding back.

choppa

Street

An automatic or semi-automatic rifle, typically an AK-47 or AK-pattern weapon. The name comes from the chopping sound of rapid fire — and from the way the gun 'chops' through whatever's in front of it. A Southern hip-hop staple from New Orleans to Atlanta to Memphis, used in everything from threats to brags about being strapped.

chopped

Internet

Defeated, embarrassed, or left looking foolish in a situation.

chopped and screwed

Street

The Houston remix technique invented by DJ Screw: pitch the record down to a syrupy 60–70 BPM, then chop it — skipping beats, scratching phrases, doubling vocals. Soundtracked the lean era of Southern rap and shaped everyone from UGK to Drake's '4PM in Calabasas' aesthetic.

chopped cheese

General

A bodega sandwich of chopped ground beef, onions, and cheese griddled together and served on a hero with lettuce, tomato, and condiments.

choppelganger

Internet

Used to roast someone by pointing out a worse-looking version of them or a person they resemble.

chopper

General

A common informal term for a helicopter.

choppers

General

Two-part winter mittens: a tough deerskin or buckskin shell over a knit wool liner. The shell breaks the wind, the liner does the warmth. Standard issue for anyone who works, hunts, or just exists outdoors in the U.P.

choppy

General

Waves with rough, uneven surfaces caused by cross winds, making for a bumpy ride.

chopse

General

To talk too much, gossip, or run your mouth — chatter for the sake of it. Often slightly disapproving: a chopser is someone who never shuts up.

chopsing

General

Arguing, backchatting, or generally running your mouth in public. The verb form of 'chopsy' — what two blokes do outside the pub before it kicks off, or what a teenager does to her mam over the Wi-Fi password.

chopsy

General

Mouthy, cheeky, overly talkative — usually in a way that's pushing its luck. From 'chops' meaning mouth. A chopsy kid is one second away from a clip round the ear.

chor

General

To steal, pinch, half-inch. Low-level — you chor a Mars bar from the corner shop, you don't chor the crown jewels.

chorro

General

A large amount of something — 'un chorro de' = loads of.

chow

General

A spicy Trini snack of raw fruit (mango, pommecythere, pineapple) cut up and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and chadon beni.

chow down

General

Used as a call to start eating together.

chow hall

General

The base cafeteria. 'Chow' is military shorthand for food going back to the 19th century, and the hall is where you queue up with a tray for whatever the cooks are slinging. Officially called a DFAC (dining facility) these days, but nobody actually calls it that.

chow hound

General

A soldier with a huge appetite who is always first to the mess hall and angles for extra rations — the unit's notorious eater.

chronic

Street

Slang for very potent, high-quality cannabis.

chronically online

Gen Z

Spending so much time on the internet that your references, jokes and opinions only make sense to other very online people.

chrono

Street

A dated informational entry in a prisoner's central file recording behavior, achievements, or incidents. California term; also form 128.

chu

General

A 'Containerized Housing Unit,' a modified shipping container used as living quarters on forward bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

chuck

General

To throw, or more broadly to perform an action ('chuck a u-ey', 'chuck a sickie').

chuck a sickie

General

To take a paid sick day from work despite being perfectly well.