chivvy
English · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
chivvy
- /ˈt͡ʃɪvi/ US, UK
Rhymes with -ɪvi
Where it comes from
From chivy, chevy (“to chase; to race, scamper”), from chivy, chevy (“a chase, hunt, pursuit”), probably from the title of The Ballad of Chevy Chase, first published in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549); the ballad is about a hunt taking place on a chase (“large country estate where game may be hunted”) in the Cheviot Hills between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, and is thought to allude to the Battle of Otterburn in 1388.
verb chivvies · chivvying · chivvied · chivy · chevy
- To coerce or hurry along, as by persistent request. Odd's wouns! it was a proper hunt. Away went my gentlemen, whooping like madmen, with their coat skirts flapping in the breeze, chivying on the dogs and having a rare morning's sport.
- To subject to harassment or verbal abuse. He wos allus willin fur to give me somethink he wos, though Mrs. Sangsby she was allus a chivying on me—like everybody everywheres.
- To sneak up on or rapidly approach.
- To pursue as in a hunt. to chivvy the fox
noun chivvies
- Something that encourages one to act; a goad, a spur. Although Mr [Paul] Hatcher is not sure how popular the site will be he has designed it to handle up to 10,000 requests an hour. "It's just there to act as a chivvy to London Underground," he said.
Translations
Every language
verb to subject to harassment or verbal abuse
| Русский | досажда́ть dosaždátʹ |
|---|
Talk about this word "chivvy." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/chivvy. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. chivvy. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/chivvy "chivvy." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/chivvy.Cite this
@misc{chivvy_2026,
title = {chivvy},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/chivvy},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
