Chonkeys, a kind of mincemeat, baked in a crust, and sold in the streets.
Choops, a corruption of CHOOPRAHO, keep silence.—Anglo-Indian.
Chootah, small, insignificant.—Anglo-Indian.
Chop, in the Canton jargon of Anglo-Chinese, this word has several significations. It means an official seal, a permit, a boat load of teas. First chop signifies first quality; and CHOP-CHOP, to make haste.
Chop, to exchange, to “swop.” To CHOP and change, to be as variable as the wind.
Chops, properly CHAPS, the mouth, or cheeks; “down in the CHOPS,” or “down in the mouth,” i.e., sad or melancholy.
Chouse, to cheat out of one’s share or portion. Hackluyt, CHAUS; Massinger, CHIAUS. From the Turkish, in which language it signifies an interpreter. Gifford gives a curious story as to its origin:—
“In the year 1609 there was attached to the Turkish embassy in England an Interpreter, or CHIAOUS, who, by cunning, aided by his official position, managed to cheat the Turkish and Persian merchants, then in London, out of the large sum of £4000, then deemed an enormous amount. From the notoriety which attended the fraud, and the magnitude of the swindle, any one who cheated or defrauded was said to chiaous, or chause, or CHOUSE; to do, that is, as this Chiaous had done.”—See Trench, Eng. Past and Present.
Chiaus, according to Sandys (Travels, p. 48), is “one who goes on embassies, executes commandments,” &c. The particular Chiaus in question is alluded to in Ben Jonson’s Alchymist, 1610.
“D. What do you think of me?
That I am a CHIAUS?
Face.That I am a CHIAUS? What’s that?
D. The Turk [who] was here.
As one would say, do you think I am a Turk?”