Definition of "chopping block" []

• A wooden block on which food or wood is chopped. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "She’d stood at Elsie Gruning’s table, trying to ignore the anguish that thrummed in every part of her, and over the way, beneath the roof where the butchers plied their trade, a big, red-faced man had held a wood pigeon by the feet, the bird madly fluttering its wings in a hopeless quest for freedom, then lowered it to his chopping block and brought his cleaver down on the bird’s neck."