The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chopping \Chop"ping\, n. Act of cutting by strokes.
Chopping block, a solid block of wood on which butchers and others chop meat, etc.
Chopping knife, a knife for chopping or mincing meat, vegetables, etc.; -- usually with a handle at the back of the blade instead of at the end.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A wooden slab used as a cutting surface for food etc. 2 (context historical informal English) A block of wood against which a condemned person put their head prior to beheading. 3 (context by extension English) A dangerous predicament or situation. 4 A situation in which someone or something is threatened with elimination.
WordNet
n. a steady wooden block on which food can be cut or diced or wood can be split
Wikipedia
Chopping Block is a webcomic by Lee Adam Herold, hosted on Keenspot. The strip takes a one-panel format with a text caption underneath the picture, and is updated sporadically; Herold admits that he will "update from time to time, then... disappear for even longer."
Chopping Block uses a gray-tone art style that is inked and sponged before being scanned into the computer.
Usage examples of "chopping block".
Even if the city survived, Don Julio and his two trusty spies would end up with our heads rolling off the chopping block.
A chopping block and a wash trough of hollowed-out stone furnished the rest of the room.
Because as soon as all the rooster feathers and bunny fur had been blown from the chopping block dust into the tangled branches of the cottonwood vivisecting Herbie's outhouse, the Armijos' dog, Es-peranza, went into heat.
Half an hour later Master Li and Yen Shih and I were admitted to a gloomy room in a gloomier tower that squatted at the end of the Wailing Wall behind the chopping block at the Vegetable Market.
It was not until many years after his flight from the colony and the death of the Indian princess Pocahontas that he revealed that when Chief Powhatan had spared him from the chopping block, it was only because the lovely princess had thrown herself across his, Smiths, prostrate body.
The man put another log on the chopping block, slung the ax up, and brought it down.
Lizzic sank clown on the chopping block, her knees wabbling beneath her.
His sword tore chips from the edge of the runway which acted as his chopping block.
She settled for helping a Yeoli, placing the logs on his chopping block so he wouldn't have to put down his axe.