chowchow

plural chowchows · alternative chow-chow · alternative chow chow

1. countableuncountableA Chinese preserve.
2. countableuncountableAn American relish, containing pickled green tomatoes, cabbage, and often other vegetables.

   Synonyms: India relish, piccalilli

3. countableuncountableA fruit ketchup.

   Synonyms: catsup, ketchup

4. countableobsoleteslanguncountableGossip.
5. countablefigurativelyinformaluncountableA miscellaneous assortment of anything.

   The drawer was crammed with a chowchow of bills, most of them yellow and cracking with age, letters still shoved into embossed envelopes which bore illegible handwritten franks instead of postage marks or stamps, and little wads of notes issued by banks long collapsed.

   2011, Barbara Hambly, Those Who Hunt the Night

6. countableuncountableAlternative letter-case form of Chow Chow (“a type of dog”).

present singular third person chowchows · participle present chowchowing · participle past chowchowed · past chowchowed · alternative chow-chow · alternative chow chow

1. intransitiveobsoleteslangTo gossip.

   […] some ten or twelve fellows were chow chowing and drinking, playing at the Chinese game with their fingers, shouting and yelling like demons.

   1861, The London and China Telegraph, page 316

alternative chow-chow · alternative chow chow

1. not comparableobsoleteslangConsisting of several kinds mingled together; mixed.

   chowchow sweetmeats (preserved fruits put together)