CHAW • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Chaw

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/tʃɔ/ Listen

verb

Chaw v. t. (past & past part. chawed; pres. part. chawing)

To grind with the teeth; to masticate, as food in eating; to chew, as the cud; to champ, as the bit. "The trampling steed, with gold and purple trapped, Chawing the foamy bit, there fiercely stood."

To ruminate in thought; to consider; to keep the mind working upon; to brood over. Note: A word formerly in good use, but now regarded as vulgar.

noun

Chaw n.

As much as is put in the mouth at once; a chew; a quid. (Law)

The jaw. (Obs.)

Chaw bacon, a rustic; a bumpkin; a lout. (Law)

Chaw tooth, a grinder. (Law)

See images of 'Chaw'

Etymology of 'Chaw'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Chaw" Quotes from Famous Books

... I felt I'd never handle a gun again; I couldn't 'a' blasphemed 'longside a babby ef you'd give me ten dollars to try. An' I guess ther' wa'n't no dirty Greaser as I couldn't ha' loved like a brother, I wus that soothed, an' peaceful, an' saft feelin'. I jest took a chaw o' plug, an' sat back an' watched them folks lookin' so noble as they come along in the'r funeral kids an' white chokers. Then the deac'n got good an' goin', an' I got right on to the 'A-mens,' fetchin' 'em that easy I wished I'd never done nothin' else all ...

— The Night Riders - A Romance of Early Montana • Ridgwell Cullum

... how yaller all dem wimmin war? Dat's 'cause dey eat clay. De little children begin 'fore dey can walk, and dey eat it till dey die; dey chaw it like 'backer. It makes all dar stumacs big, like as you seed 'em, and spiles dar ...

— Continental Monthly , Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... I stood. Things were mighty strange, and every darned nigger of them looked so pleased like. To show them manners, I said, ‘How are you?’ and I went to bow, but chaw my last tobacco if I could, my breeches was so tight—the heat way back in the cañon had shrunk them. They were too polite to notice it, and I felt for my knife to rip the dog-goned things, but recollecting the scalp-taker ...

— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

... Torch-staues in their hand: and their poore Iades Lob downe their heads, dropping the hides and hips: The gumme downe roping from their pale-dead eyes, And in their pale dull mouthes the Iymold Bitt Lyes foule with chaw'd-grasse, still and motionlesse. And their executors, the knauish Crowes, Flye o're them all, impatient for their howre. Description cannot sute it selfe in words, To demonstrate the Life of such a Battaile, In life so liuelesse, ...

— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... "Mac ain't no fool, if he does chaw hay," said another, and the crowd laughed. They were losing that frenzy, largely imitative and involuntary, which actuates a mob. There was something counteracting in the ex-sheriff's cool, ...

— Main-Travelled Roads • Hamlin Garland

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