Chope

To reserve a seat, usually with a packet of tissue at a hawker centre.

To chope is to reserve something, most famously a hawker centre seat, by leaving a packet of tissue, an umbrella or a staff pass on the table. Everyone understands it; nobody wrote the rule.

Newcomers: if a table has a tissue packet on it, it is taken. If you want to chope, do it only when someone in your group is already queueing for food, and do not chope a whole table for one person at lunch peak.

The word also gets used more widely: “chope the date”, “chope a slot”.