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Chew

//tʃuː// name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    A river in Somerset, England. countable, uncountable
Noun
  1. 1
    The act of chewing; mastication with the mouth. countable, uncountable

    "I popped the gum into my mouth and gave it a chew."

  2. 2
    biting and grinding food in your mouth so it becomes soft enough to swallow wordnet
  3. 3
    Level of chewiness. countable, uncountable

    "Once it's cooked, it's not enough of a hard chew to count."

  4. 4
    a wad of something chewable as tobacco wordnet
  5. 5
    A small sweet, such as a taffy, that is eaten by chewing. countable, uncountable

    "Phillip purchased a bag of licorice chews at the drugstore."

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    Chewing tobacco. informal, uncountable

    "The school had banned chew and smokes from the school grounds, even for adults."

  2. 7
    A plug or wad of chewing tobacco; chaw or a chaw. countable

    "The ballplayers sat on the bench watching the rain, glumly working their chews."

  3. 8
    The condition of something being torn or ground up mechanically. informal, uncountable

    "Avoiding Tape Chew. In the early days of the ADAT, the "V" blocks (two arms that thread the tape around the front of the head) could sometimes get out of alignment and "chew" the outside track […]"

Verb
  1. 1
    To crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws; done to food to soften it and break it down by the action of saliva before it is swallowed.

    "Make sure to chew thoroughly, and don't talk with your mouth full!"

  2. 2
    chew (food); to bite and grind with the teeth wordnet
  3. 3
    To grind, tear, or otherwise degrade or demolish something with teeth or as with teeth.

    "He keeps his feed in steel drums to prevent the mice from chewing holes in the feed-sacks."

  4. 4
    To think about something; to ponder; to chew over. informal

    "The professor stood at the blackboard, chalk in hand, and chewed the question the student had asked."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English chewen, from Old English ċēowan, from Proto-West Germanic *keuwan, from Proto-Germanic *kewwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵyewh₁-. Cognate with West Frisian kôgje, Low German käwwen, Dutch kauwen, German kauen; also Latin gingīva (“gums”), Tocharian B śuwaṃ (“to eat”), Polish żuć (“to chew”), Persian جویدن (javidan), Pashto ژول (žovạl, “to bite, gnaw”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English chew, cheu, icheu, from Old English *ċēaw, *ġeċēaw (“chewing”), from Proto-West Germanic *kauw, *gakauw (“chewing”), from Proto-Germanic *kewwaną (“to chew”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch kauw (“chewing”), Dutch gekauw (“chewing”), West Frisian gekau (“chewing”).

Etymology 3

* As an English surname, Chew has a number of separate origins: ** A toponymic surname referring to a place in Billington, Lancashire. It was originally spelled Cho, from Middle English cho, which is possibly a descendant of Old English *cēo (“gill”), denoting a ravine. ** A toponymic surname referring to Chew Magna or Chew Stoke in Somerset, England. ** A nickname from Old English ċīo, ċēo, which refers to smaller chattering species of crow, in particular the red-billed chough. * As a Chinese surname, borrowed from Hokkien 周 (Chiu), Teochew 周 (ziu1), Cantonese 趙／赵 (ziu6), etc.

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