(now vulgar). Also 6–7 chawe. [A by-form of CHEW (OE. céowan), found since 16th c. The form is not easily accounted for, but it agrees with mod.Du. kauwen, Ger. kauen, LG. kauen, kawen, as distinct from MHG. kiuwen, OHG. chiuwan, MDu. kuwen; and it is not far phonetically from another variant chow, chowe, used in Eng. in 16th c., and now in Sc. and some Eng. dialects; see CHOW. Chaw was very common in 16–17th c.; it occurs in Udall, Bradford, Levins, Golding, Marbeck, Baret, Breton, Drayton, Marston, Dekker, Topsell, Donne, Ben Jonson, Markham, Boyle, Fuller, Cogan, Harris, etc., in addition to the authors cited below. It is now esteemed vulgar, and is used of coarse or vulgar actions, as ‘chawing’ tobacco.
(A suggested explanation of the form is a possible passing of the OE. céowan, céaw, cuwon, cowen, into another conjugation, as ceawan, céow, ceawen; but as no trace of the chaw form occurs before 1530, this seems unhistorical.)]
1. trans. To chew; now esp. to chew roughly, to champ; or to chew without swallowing.
1530. Palsgr., 481/2. There be mo beestes than the oxe that chawe their cudde.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., Table Script. Quots., As yet the flesh was betweene their teeth, neither as yet was chawed.
1562. Turner, Bathes, 12. Chawe your meate well.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 132 b. If they [cattle] want their digestion, or chawe not cud.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 30. Malicious Envy … still did chaw Between his cankred teeth a venemous tode.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy. (1810), III. 456. When they eate, they chawe their meate but little.
1609. Bible (Douay), Prov. xxx. 14. A generation, that … chaweth with theyr grinding teeth.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 150–1. They are alwayes chawing it [opium], tis good against vapours, cowardize, and the falling sicknesse.
1653. Walton, Angler, viii. 172. Chaw a little white or brown bread in your mouth.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 7 June. Some roll-tobacco, to smell to and chaw.
a. 1700. Dryden, Fab. Cock & Fox, 485. Nor chaw’d the flesh of lambs but when he could.
a. 1734. North, Exam., II. v. ¶ 94. He has Thistles to chaw.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, ii. You must larn to chaw baccy.
1878. Mrs. Stowe, Poganuc P., iii. 23. They’ve bit of more’n they can chaw.
† b. spec. To make (bullets) jagged by biting (cf. CHAMP v. 5; for quots. see CHAWED). Obs.
c. intr.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 967/1. Hauing some good morsell … giuen him to chaw upon.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 61. They doo not only forbid to eate, but also euen sclenderly to chawe.
1638. W. Gilberte, MS. Let. Abp. Ussher. I have chawed many times upon those husks.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., xiii. 134. The women do continually chaw of these three things.
1704. Worlidge, Dict. Rust. et Urb., s.v. Blood-letting, Making him [a horse] chaw and move his Chops.
1884. Bath Jrnl., 26 July, 6/5. Two lions and a tiger … began ‘chawing’ away at my leg.
† 2. fig. a. ? To corrode, fret, wear down.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. i. 137. I am god Tybris … Quhilk … with mony iawp and iaw Bettis thir brayis, chawing the bankis doun [but ed. 1874 has schawand, = shavand, L. stringentem].
b. To mouth or mumble (words).
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 736. The Priests do so champ them and chaw them [Latin words].
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., lxxi. They who in Richard’s Raigne … the gaudye word Of Tyrranie had Chaw’d.
c. To ruminate upon, brood over.
a. 1558. Q. Eliz., in Hearne, Coll., 3 June (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), I. 256. I … chawe them by musing.
1600. Heywood, 2 Edw. IV., Wks. 1874, I. 112. He chawes his malice.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 89. Large roomes, wherein a man may walke and chawe his melancholy for want of other repast.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Content, viii. When all thy deeds … are chaw’d by others pen and tongue.
1845. [see CHAWING].
3. slang, chiefly in U.S. To chaw up: to demolish, ‘do for,’ ‘smash.’
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xvi. 193. The patriotic loco-foco movement yesterday, in which the whigs was so chawed up. Ibid., xxi. 258–9. There air some catawampous chawers in the small way too.
1857. F. Douglass, Speech, in New-York Daily Tribune, 15 May, 6/5 (Bartlett, s.v. Catawampously). Where was the wealth and power which should make us fourteen millions take to our heels before three hundred thousand slave-holders for fear of being catawampously chawed up?
