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Chaw

//t͡ʃɔ// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    That which is chewed. countable
  2. 2
    The jaw. obsolete

    "all the poison ran about his chaw"

  3. 3
    Obsolete form of cha (“tea”). alt-of, obsolete, uncountable
  4. 4
    a wad of something chewable as tobacco wordnet
  5. 5
    Chewing tobacco. Appalachia, informal, uncountable

    "When the doctor told him to quit smoking, Harvey switched to chaw, but then developed cancer of the mouth."

Verb
  1. 1
    To chew; grind with one's teeth; to masticate (food, or the cud). Southern-US

    "The trampling steede, with gold and purple trapt,"

  2. 2
    chew without swallowing wordnet
  3. 3
    To ruminate (about) in thought; to ponder; to consider. obsolete, transitive

    ""I home retourning, fraught with fowle despight, And chawing vengeaunce all the way I went, Soone as my loathed love appeard in sight, With wrathfull hand I slew her innocent;"

  4. 4
    To steal. UK, slang

    "Some pikey's chawed my bike."

  5. 5
    To be sulky. dialectal, intransitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

An unexplained variation of chewen (“to chew”). First attested in the sixteenth century. See chew for more. Cognate with Middle Dutch cauwen ("to chew"; whence Dutch kauwen), obsolete Dutch kauw (“the act of chewing, that which is chewed, chewed mass, wad of tobacco”), Middle Low German kauwen, kauen (“to chew”). Compare also Old English ġecow (“that which is chewed, food”) and *ġeċēaw (“chewing”), whence Middle English icheu (“gnawing, biting”).

Etymology 2

An unexplained variation of chewen (“to chew”). First attested in the sixteenth century. See chew for more. Cognate with Middle Dutch cauwen ("to chew"; whence Dutch kauwen), obsolete Dutch kauw (“the act of chewing, that which is chewed, chewed mass, wad of tobacco”), Middle Low German kauwen, kauen (“to chew”). Compare also Old English ġecow (“that which is chewed, food”) and *ġeċēaw (“chewing”), whence Middle English icheu (“gnawing, biting”).

Etymology 3

From Early Modern English chawe, either a form of Middle English chaul, chavel, jawle, jawe (“jaw”) (whence also English jowl) which has lost the final -l, or from Middle English *chawe, *chowe, from Old English *ċēawe, *ċēowe (“jaw”), or a form of Middle English jowe, jawe (“jaw”). See jowl and jaw for more.

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