rechew

present singular third person rechews · participle present rechewing · participle past rechewed · past rechewed

1. To chew again.

   When nibbling Sheep at large pursue their Food, And unmolested Kine rechew the Cud;

   1713, Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, “A Nocturnal Reverie”, in Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions, London: J.B, page 292

   3 more examples

   Nor could He (as some Beasts rechew their meat, To cause the same the better to disgest) Rechew this Bread,

   1609, John Davies, The Holy Roode, London: N. Butter

   The sailor now drew from the receptacle just named a dirty piece of folded paper, deeply impregnated with the perfume of stale and oft rechewed quids of coarse tobacco;

   1832, John Richardson, chapter 12, in Wacousta, volume 2, London: T. Cadell, page 316

   The harder Small sang, the harder the cow chewed and the faster she twiddled her ears around as if stirring the song into the food to be rechewed in cud along with her breakfast.

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

2. figurativelyTo go over or ponder again.

   His mind insisted on rechewing its doubts, rather than engage in constructive thought.

   1941, Robert A. Heinlein, “They”, in Rod Serling’s Other Worlds, New York: Bantam, published 1978, page 17

   2 more examples

   […] his disease is mostly impatience with contemporary trends in art and literature that have passed him by. And so he rechews the classics, “which those ignorant fellows never bothered to read,” […]

   1989, Claire Nicolas White, chapter 17, in Fragments of Stained Glass, San Francisco: Mercury House, page 168

   By noon on that first day, the networks had run out of new information. Drained of every fresh fact, they went right on reporting anyway, chewing and rechewing the same small chunks of news.

   2012, Karen Thompson Walker, chapter 3, in The Age of Miracles, New York: Random House, page 14