chopper

chopper

1. Chiefly Brit a small hand axe

2. a butcher's cleaver

3. an informal name for a helicopter

4. Physics a device for periodically interrupting an electric current or beam of radiation to produce a pulsed current or beam

5. a type of bicycle or motorcycle with very high handlebars and an elongated saddle

6. NZ a child's bicycle

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

chopper

[′chäp·ər]

(engineering)

Any knife, axe, or mechanical device for chopping or cutting an object into segments.

(physics)

A device for interrupting an electric current, beam of light, or beam of infrared radiation at regular intervals, to permit amplification of the associated electrical quantity or signal by an alternating-current amplifier; also used to interrupt a continuous stream of neutrons to measure velocity.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

chopper

A colloquial term for helicopter.

An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved