noun
Meaning 1
That which is chewed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
chaw
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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General-American: /t͡ʃɔ/
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cot-caught-merger: /t͡ʃɑ/
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Received-Pronunciation: /t͡ʃɔː/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɔː
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homophone: chore (non-rhotic)
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CMU ARPABET: CH AO1 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
Chewing tobacco.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Appalachia, informal, uncountable
Examples
- When the doctor told him to quit smoking, Harvey switched to chaw, but then developed cancer of the mouth.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
The jaw.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Obsolete form of cha (“tea”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To chew; grind with one's teeth; to masticate (food, or the cud).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Southern-US
Qualifier: archaic or nonstandard outside dialects
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To ruminate (about) in thought; to ponder; to consider.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, transitive
Examples
- "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;
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To steal.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, slang
Examples
- Some pikey's chawed my bike.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 8
To be sulky.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 9
a wad of something chewable as tobacco
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: chew, cud, quid, plug, wad
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: morsel, bit, bite
verb
Meaning 10
chew without swallowing
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- chaw tobacco
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: chew, masticate, manducate, jaw
History
Etymology
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”).
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.