• (General American)IPA^(key):/t͡ʃɔ/
  • (cot–caught merger)IPA^(key):/t͡ʃɑ/
• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/t͡ʃɔː/

• Audio(Southern England):

  (file)

  Rhymes:-ɔː

• Homophone:chore(non-rhotic)

FromMiddle Englishchawen, an unexplained variation ofchewen(“to chew”).^[1][2] Seechew for more. Cognate withMiddle Dutchcauwen("to chew"; whenceDutchkauwen), obsoleteDutchkauw(“the act of chewing, that which is chewed, chewed mass, wad of tobacco”),Middle Low Germankauwen,kauen(“to chew”). Compare alsoOld Englishġecow(“that which is chewed, food”) and*ġeċēow(“chewing”), whenceMiddle Englishicheu(“gnawing, biting”).

chaw (countable anduncountable,pluralchaws)

1. (countable) That which is chewed.
2. (Appalachia,informal,uncountable)Chewing tobacco.

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

   • 1889,Mark Twain, chapter 21, inThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

     "YOU give him achaw, did you? So did your sister's cat's grandmother. You pay me back thechaws you've awready borry'd off'n me, Lafe Buckner, then I'll loan you one or two ton of it, and won't charge you no back intrust, nuther."

   • 1970,Donald Harington,Lightning Bug:

     He […] went into the store and behind the counter and reached up and got the plug of chewing tobacco and unwrapped it and bit off achaw.

chaw (third-person singular simple presentchaws,present participlechawing,simple past and past participlechawed)

1. (archaic ornonstandard outsidedialects, e.g.Appalachia,Southern US) Tochew;grind with one's teeth; tomasticate (food, or the cud).
   • c.1540,Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Translations from theÆneid, Book 4, inThe Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1920, page 130^[1]:

     The trampling steede, with gold and purple trapt,

     Chawing the fomie bit, there fercely stood.

   • 2006, Hackett (Indianapolis) edition of Edmund Spenser's [1590] “Book I, Canto IV” ofThe Faerie Queene, page 62:

     And next to him maliciousEnvy rode,
     Upon a ravenous wolfe, and still didchaw
     Betweene his cankred teeth a venemous tode[…]

   • 1682,John Dryden,The Medall. A Satyre against Sedition‎^[2], lines145–8:

     The Man who laugh'd but once, to see an Ass
     Mumbling to make the cross-grained Thistles pass,
     Might laugh again, to see a Jurychaw
     The prickles of unpalatable Law.

   • 1884,Mark Twain, chapter 29, inThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

     […] the king he set down and twisted his head to one side, andchawed his tongue, and scrawled off something[…]

   • 1942,Emily Carr, “The Orange Lily”, inThe Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.:Oxford University Press,→OCLC:

     Anne passed the lily. Beyond was the bed of pinks—white, clove, cinnamon.[…] Anne's scissorschawed the wiry stems almost as sapless as the everlastings.

2. (obsolete,transitive) Toruminate (about) in thought; toponder; to consider.
   • 1590,Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London:[…] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC,page29:
     , Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006, p. 62,

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

3. (UK,slang) Tosteal.

   Somepikey'schawed my bike.

4. (dialectal,intransitive) To besulky.

From Early Modern Englishchawe, either a form of Middle Englishchaul,chavel, jawle(“jaw”) (whence also Englishjowl) which has lost the final-l, or a form ofMiddle Englishjowe,jawe(“jaw”). Seejowl andjaw for more.

chaw (pluralchaws)

1. (obsolete) Thejaw.
   • 2006, Hackett (Indianapolis) edition of Edmund Spenser's [1590] “Book I, Canto IV” ofThe Faerie Queene, page 62:

     all the poison ran about hischaw

chaw (uncountable)

1. Obsolete form ofcha(“tea”).

• chees and chaws

• WHCA,Wach