chuck
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other animal.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chuhkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃʌk
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.
noun
cooking
Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other animal.
mechanical engineering
A holding device consisting of adjustable jaws that center a workpiece in a lathe or center a tool in a drill
mechanical engineering
A mechanical device that holds an object firmly in place, for example holding a drill bit in a high-speed rotating drill or grinder.
A clucking sound.
A gentle touch or tap.
informal
A casual throw.
verb
To bore or turn (a hole) in a revolving piece held in a chuck.
To make a clucking sound.
To call, as a hen her chickens.
To touch or tap gently.
transitiveinformal
To throw, especially in a careless or inaccurate manner.
transitiveinformal
To discard, to throw away.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (cooking) Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other animal.
Used this way, chuck is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a food and cooking use: everyday in kitchens and recipes.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Cooking/food
- Everyday conversation
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use chuck
- “He would always chuck the ball for the dog to fetch.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Throw or cast away.
Between the chuck and the brisket.
Give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope.
A wagon equipped with a cookstove and provisions (for cowboys).
Large whippoorwill-like bird of the southern United States.
A person whose duty is to throw troublemakers out of a bar or public meeting.
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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.