[f. CHEW v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. to CHEW; mastication. Also fig.
c. 1000. Suppl. Ælfric’s Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 179. Ruminatio, ciwung, uel edroc, uel aceocung.
1340. Ayenb., 86. Vorzuelȝe wyþoute chewynge.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 74. Chewynge of metys or oþyr þynngys, masticacio.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier, E iij a. You can sup of a coole cup of Sacke without any chewing.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xi. (1851), 428. If the Kingdom shall tast nothing but after his chewing, what does he make of the Kingdom, but a great baby.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., I. ii. § 21. [In] chewing … there is a complicated concurrence of movements of the jaw, the tongue, and the cheeks.
† b. used as = Tasting. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17018. Hering, sight, smelling and fele, cheuing er wittes five.
2. The action of champing and squeezing any substance between the teeth, without reducing it to pulp, or intending to swallow it; esp. the habitual practice of so operating upon a quid of tobacco for the sake of the juice.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 131. The habit of chewing.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 78/1. The prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expectorating.
1879. Sala, in Daily Tel., 26 Dec. Chewing is rapidly going out of fashion, but the quid has still a few votaries left.
3. attrib. and in Comb., as chewing-ball (see quot.); chewing-gum (U.S.), the hardened secretion of the spruce-tree, or other insoluble substance, chewed, after the manner of tobacco, by boys and girls.
1708–15. Kersey, Chewing-balls, little Balls made of several sorts of Druggs, to be chew’d by Horses, in order to recover their Appetite.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v.
1871. ‘Mark Twain,’ Sketches (188[?]), 321 (Hoppe). You ought never to take your little brother’s ‘chawing-gum’ away from him by main force.
1882. Chicago Advance, 6 April, 219. They are the ‘chewing-gum of literature, offering neither savor nor nutriment, only subserving the mechanical process of mastication.’
1883. St. James’s Gaz., 16 Nov. Petroleum [is used] … to make the substance known as ‘chewing-gum.’
