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chaw

English

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chaw¹

  • /t͡ʃɔ/ US
  • /t͡ʃɑ/ cot caught merger
  • /t͡ʃɔː/ UK

Sounds like chore (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɔː

Where it comes from

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”).

noun chaws

  1. countable That which is chewed.
  2. Appalachia, informal, uncountable Chewing tobacco. When the doctor told him to quit smoking, Harvey switched to chaw, but then developed cancer of the mouth.

verb chaws · chawing · chawed

  1. Southern US To chew; grind with one's teeth; to masticate (food, or the cud). The trampling steede, with gold and purple trapt,
  2. obsolete, transitive To ruminate (about) in thought; to ponder; to consider. "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;
  3. UK, slang To steal. Some pikey's chawed my bike.
  4. dialectal, intransitive To be sulky.

chaw²

  • /t͡ʃɔ/ US
  • /t͡ʃɑ/ cot caught merger
  • /t͡ʃɔː/ UK

Sounds like chore (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɔː

Where it comes from

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.

noun chaws

  1. obsolete The jaw. all the poison ran about his chaw

chaw³

  • /t͡ʃɔ/ US
  • /t͡ʃɑ/ cot caught merger
  • /t͡ʃɔː/ UK

Sounds like chore (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɔː

noun

  1. obsolete, uncountable Obsolete form of cha (“tea”).

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Cite this
MLA

"chaw." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/chaw. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

chaw. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/chaw

Chicago

"chaw." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/chaw.

BibTeX
@misc{chaw_2026,
  title = {chaw},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/chaw},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}