Other forms: chisels
A chisel is the sharp-edged tool struck to carve wood or stone. A wood chisel, sharpen the chisel, a set of chisels.
The bevel and the handle differ by trade: a wood chisel is pushed or tapped with a mallet, a cold chisel is struck with a hammer to cut metal, and a stonemason's chisel is heavier again. A blunt chisel is the dangerous one, because it needs force and slips. Note chisel as a verb; and chiselled, meaning sharply defined — a chiselled jaw, which is the commonest figurative use.
1nounchiselA sharp-edged tool struck to carve wood or stone.
“The chisel needs sharpening about every four hours of work.”
chisel is a cutting tool.
Latin cisorium meant a cutting tool, from caedere, to cut — the same verb behind scissors, decide and concise. Deciding something is cutting off the alternatives.
Proto-Indo-European
*kh₂eyd-
Middle English
chisel
English, today
chisel
From Middle English chisel. From Middle English chisel, chesel, from fro-nor cisel, from cisoir (with a change in suffix), from Latin cīsōrium (“cutting tool”), from Latin caedō (“cut”). a doublet of scissors.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA