sb. and a. Ind. & China. [According to Col. Yule, ‘pigeon-English’; of uncertain origin.]
1. sb. A mixture or medley of any sort; e.g., mixed pickles or preserves.
1850. B. Taylor, Eldorado, I. xii. 117. The grave Celestials serve up their chow-chow and curry.
1857. V’ctess Falkland (title), Chow-Chow;… a Journal kept in India, Egypt, and Syria.
1858. Bombay Q. R., Jan., 100 (Y.). The word chow-chow is suggestive, especially to the Indian reader, of a mixture of things, ‘good, bad, and indifferent.’
1869. N. & Q., 6 March, 230. I got an invitation to a first-rate Chow-chow or Chinese dinner.
2. adj. Miscellaneous, mixed, assorted, diverse; of water, ‘broken.’ Chow-chow chop: the last lighter containing the sundry small packages to fill up a ship. (Williams, Chinese Comm. Guide.)
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 321. The general or ‘chow chow’ Borah.
1882. ‘Fan Kwae’ at Canton, 63 (Y.). A ‘chow-chow’ cargo is an assorted cargo; a ‘general shop’ is a ‘chow-chow’ shop.
1884. Law. Rep. 13 Q. B. Div. 652. The current was causing small whirlpools, and was of the kind known in China as ‘chow-chow’ water.
