Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Chips
You may trace him oft
By scars which his activity has left
Beside our roads and pathways;…
He who with pocket-hammer smites the edge
Of luckless rock or prominent stone,…
…… detaching by the stroke
A chip or splinter.
Wordsworth.—The Excursion, Book III. Page 83.