chew
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chooIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃu
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
To crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws; done to food to soften it and break it down by the action of saliva before it is swallowed.
To grind, tear, or otherwise degrade or demolish something with teeth or as with teeth.
informal
To think about something; to ponder; to chew over.
noun
The act of chewing; mastication with the mouth.
uncountableinformal
The condition of something being torn or ground up mechanically.
Level of chewiness.
A small sweet, such as a taffy, that is eaten by chewing.
countable
A plug or wad of chewing tobacco; chaw or a chaw.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
More ways to use chew
- “He keeps his feed in steel drums to prevent the mice from chewing holes in the feed-sacks.”verb
- “I popped the gum into my mouth and gave it a chew.”noun
- “Phillip purchased a bag of licorice chews at the drugstore.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Biting and grinding food in your mouth so it becomes soft enough to swallow.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Talk socially without exchanging too much information.
Censure severely or angrily.
A preparation (usually made of sweetened chicle) for chewing.
A severe scolding.
Censure severely or angrily.
Reflect deeply on a subject.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Food of a ruminant regurgitated to be chewed again.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.