chaw

plural chaws

1. countableThat which is chewed.
2. AppalachiainformaluncountableChewing tobacco.

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

   3 more examples

   "YOU give him a chaw, did you? So did your sister's cat's grandmother. You pay me back the chaws 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."

   1889, Mark Twain, chapter 21, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

   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 a chaw.

   1970, Donald Harington, Lightning Bug

   Henry paused to see what kind of effect his words were having, but Red’s face was expressionless; all Henry could see was his jaw tensing rhythmically as he worked on his chaw.

   1991 August, Francis Roe, chapter 12, in Intensive Care, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 111

present singular third person chaws · participle present chawing · participle past chawed · past chawed

1. Southern USarchaic or nonstandard outside dialectsTo chew; grind with one's teeth; to masticate (food, or the cud).

   The trampling steede, with gold and purple trapt,

   c. 1540, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Translations from the Æneid, Book 4, in The Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1920, page 130

   4 more examples

   And next to him malicious Envy rode, Upon a ravenous wolfe, and still did chaw Betweene his cankred teeth a venemous tode […]

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

   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 Jury chaw The prickles of unpalatable Law.

   1682, John Dryden, The Medall. A Satyre against Sedition, lines 145–8

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

   1884, Mark Twain, chapter 29, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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

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

2. obsoletetransitiveTo 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. UKslangTo steal.

   Some pikey's chawed my bike.

4. dialectalintransitiveTo be sulky.

plural chaws

1. obsoleteThe jaw.

   all the poison ran about his chaw

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

1. obsoleteuncountableObsolete form of cha (“tea”).