chow

plural chows

1. slanguncountableusuallyFood, especially snacks.

   I'm going to pick up some chow for dinner.

   1 more example

   Donlon says, "Well, we're rich and we got beaucoup beer and beaucoup chow. Now all we need is the Bob Hope show."

   1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 93

2. Trinidad and TobagouncountableusuallyUnripe, or partially ripened, fruit seasoned and served as a dish, e.g. pineapple chow or mango chow.
3. uncountableusuallyA Chow Chow.

   While we were talking, one of the chows, the rusty one, had come over to me and I was absently petting him.

   1988 March 4, Jane Weinberg, “First Person: Me and Georgia O'Keeffe”, in Chicago Reader

   1 more example

   ‘I'd try and grapple with him myself, only I've got my chow in my room, you know, and he goes for pigs wherever he finds them.’

   1914, Saki, ‘The Lull’, Beasts and Superbeasts

4. AustraliaarchaicslanguncountableusuallyA Chinese person.

   These were the creatures Nawnim had been amazed to see about him on the day of his arrival. When he inquired about them, Anna told him they were Japs an' Chows.

   1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 74

   1 more example

   ‘Now look here old man if you should ever bump into an interesting Chow from over the river – one with access, follow me? – just you remember High Haven!’

   1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 11

present singular third person chows · participle present chowing · participle past chowed · past chowed

1. South AfricaslangTo eat.

plural chows

1. A prefecture or district of the second rank in China, or the chief city of such a district.

plural chows

1. board gamesA run of three consecutive tiles of the same suit.

   Synonyms: sequence

2. board gamesA call for forming such a run using a discarded tile.

   Synonyms: chii

present singular third person chows · participle present chowing · participle past chowed · past chowed

1. board gamesTo call a discarded tile to produce a chow.

   […] while the adversary on his right will repeatedly bury in the discard the very tiles he wishes to chow but can't.

   2007, Eleanor Noss Whitney, A Mah Jong Handbook: How to Play, Score, and Win, page 154

   Synonyms: chii

plural Chows

1. A surname from Cantonese.
2. alternativeobsoleteAlternative form of Zhou (“dynasty, realm, and era”).

plural Chows

1. A Chow Chow (Chinese breed of dog).

   Colin was a Chow; an interesting Chinese breed that looks a bit like a Pomeranian on steroids[.]

   2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, page 153