"I havena had the grace yet to come down to thank your honour for the credit ye did puir Steenie, wi' laying his head in a rath grave."
The Glossary explains the word as ready, quick, early.
P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.
Chip in Porridge (Vol. i., p. 382).—Though a long time has elapsed, I see nothing more on the subject of this phrase than Q. D.'s application for information regarding it.
I take it to mean a nonentity, a thing of no importance, and to have no more distinctive origin than the innumerable other cant sayings in daily use.
In a book recently published, Personal Adventures of our own Correspondent, by M. B. Honan, vol. i. p. 151., occurs this passage:
"It is very easy to stand well with all by being, what is vulgarly called, 'a chip in porridge.'"
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
"A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn" (Vol. viii., p. 102.).—See Pope's Moral Essays, Ep. 1. l. 136.