chew

UK/tʃuː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/tʃʉw/

chew verb: to crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws; done to food to soften it and break it down by the action of saliva before it is swallowed.

Verb

chew (third-person singular simple present chews, present participle chewing, simple past chewed, past participle chewed or (rare) chewn)

To crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws; done to food to soften it and break it down by the action of saliva before it is swallowed.
- Make sure to chew thoroughly, and don't talk with your mouth full!
- The steak was tough to chew as it had been cooked too long.
Synonyms:

bite, chavel, chomp, crunch, masticate
To grind, tear, or otherwise degrade or demolish something with teeth or as with teeth.
- He keeps his feed in steel drums to prevent the mice from chewing holes in the feed-sacks.
- The harsh desert wind and sand had chewed the stump into ragged strips of wood.
Synonyms:

grind, pulverize, rip, shred, tear
(informal, uncountable) The condition of something being torn or ground up mechanically.
- Avoiding Tape Chew. In the early days of the ADAT, the "V" blocks (two arms that thread the tape around the front of the head) could sometimes get out of alignment and "chew" the outside track […]1995, Keyboard, volume 21, numbers 7-12, page 138
(informal) To think about something; to ponder; to chew over.
- The professor stood at the blackboard, chalk in hand, and chewed the question the student had asked.
- Old politicians chew on wisdom past.1734, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Cobham
Synonyms:

contemplate, ruminate, mull, muse, ponder
To chew tobacco.
- To reduce cancer risk, it is best that you neither chew nor smoke.
- He'd been chewing for many years by the time he first noticed some white plaques on his oral mucosa.

Noun

chew (countable and uncountable, plural chews)

The act of chewing; mastication with the mouth.
- I popped the gum into my mouth and gave it a chew.
Level of chewiness.
- Once it's cooked, it's not enough of a hard chew to count.1996, Adele Puhn, The 5-Day Miracle Diet Companion, →ISBN
- A bread with a strong and solidified gluten network has a nice chew to it, and many types of charcuterie call for just enough work by the teeth to be dangerously addictive. But in all cases, chewy must be combined with an appropriate amount of ...2014, Christian F. Puglisi, Relae: A Book of Ideas, →ISBN, page 140
A small sweet, such as a taffy, that is eaten by chewing.
- Phillip purchased a bag of licorice chews at the drugstore.
(informal, uncountable) Chewing tobacco.
- The school had banned chew and smokes from the school grounds, even for adults.
(countable) A plug or wad of chewing tobacco; chaw or a chaw.
- The ballplayers sat on the bench watching the rain, glumly working their chews.
- The first time he chewed tobacco, he swallowed his chew and got extremely sick.
(informal, uncountable) The condition of something being torn or ground up mechanically.
- Avoiding Tape Chew. In the early days of the ADAT, the "V" blocks (two arms that thread the tape around the front of the head) could sometimes get out of alignment and "chew" the outside track […]1995, Keyboard, volume 21, numbers 7-12, page 138

Proper noun capitalized: Chew

Chew (countable and uncountable, plural Chews)

A surname.
A river in Somerset, England.

chew meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

chew in Hindi

to crush food with teeth prior to swallowing: चबाना cabānā

chew in Tamil

to crush food with teeth prior to swallowing: சவை cavai, மெல் mel

chew in Marathi

to crush food with teeth prior to swallowing: चावणे cāvṇe

chew in Urdu

to chew, masticate: چبانا cabānā

More languagesFewer languages

chew in Bengali: চিবনো cibôno
chew in Telugu: నములు namulu
chew in Malayalam: മുറുക്കുക muṟukkuka
chew in Kannada: ಅಗಿ, ಜಗಿ, ಜೆಗಿ, ಜಿಗಿ
chew in Punjabi: ਚਬਾਉਣਾ cabāuṇā
chew in Gujarati: ચાવવું cāvvũ
chew in Odia: ଚୋବାଇବା cobāibā
chew in Sanskrit: खादति khādati
chew in Assamese: চোবা süba, পকটীয়া pokotia
chew in Nepali: चपाउनु capāunu, चुइँगम cuĩgam
chew in Tagalog: nguya
chew in Arabic: مَضَغَ maḍaḡa
chew in Malay: kunyah, mamah
chew in Indonesian: kunyah
chew in Persian: جویدن javidan
chew in Thai: เคี้ยว kíao, ลูกอมเคี้ยว lôok om kíeow
chew in Vietnamese: nhai, nhằn, nhá
chew in Myanmar: ဝါး wa:

Examples of chew in a sentence

The same chewn upon maketh one to avoid much phlegm.1578, Henry Lyte, A niewe Herball:
But meanwhile Mademoiselle's book had at least been found under an arm-chair where it had been dragged, chewn up and torn to pieces by a young pug-dog or by a kitten.1976, Denis Diderot, translated by Leonard Tancock, Rameau's Nephew / D'alembert's Dream:
He wore two sweaters, both moth chewn and filthy but warm.2001, Keith Douglass, Seal Team Seven 14: Death Blow:
His left cheek seemed to have been cut and chewn awayǃ2010, Tony Reynolds, The Lost Stories of Sherlock Holmes:

All 40 example sentences with chew

Synonyms of chew

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All synonyms of chew

Forms of chew

Verb
third-person singular present	chews
present participle	chewing
past	chewed
past participle	chewed
past participle (rare)	chewn
Noun
plural	chews
Proper noun
plural	Chews

Past tense of chew: chewed

Plural of chew: chews

Origin of chew

From Middle English chewen, from Old English ċēowan, from Proto-West Germanic *keuwan, from Proto-Germanic *kewwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵyewh₁-. Cognate with West Frisian kôgje, Low German käwwen, Dutch kauwen, German kauen; also Latin gingīva (“gums”), Tocharian B śuwaṃ (“to eat”), Polish żuć (“to chew”), Persian جویدن (javidan), Pashto ژُوَل (žovạl, “to bite, gnaw”).

From Middle English chew, cheu, icheu, from Old English *ċēaw, *ġeċēaw (“chewing”), from Proto-West Germanic *kauw, *gakauw (“chewing”), from Proto-Germanic *kewwaną (“to chew”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch kauw (“chewing”), Dutch gekauw (“chewing”), West Frisian gekau (“chewing”).

* As an English surname, Chew has a number of separate origins: ** A toponymic surname referring to a place in Billington, Lancashire. It was originally spelled Cho, from Middle English cho, which is possibly a descendant of Old English *cēo (“gill”), denoting a ravine. ** A toponymic surname referring to Chew Magna or Chew Stoke in Somerset, England. ** A nickname from Old English ċīo, ċēo, which refers to smaller chattering species of crow, in particular the red-billed chough. * As a Chinese surname, borrowed from Hokkien 周 (Chiu), Teochew 周 (ziu1), Cantonese 趙／赵 (ziu6), etc.

Phrases with chew

Words that rhyme with chew

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Questions about chew

What does chew mean?: Chew means to crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws; done to food to soften it and break it down by the action of saliva before it is swallowed.
What is chew in Hindi?: Chew in Hindi is चबाना (cabānā). See Chew meaning in Hindi.
How do you use chew in a sentence?: The same chewn upon maketh one to avoid much phlegm.
What part of speech is chew?: Chew can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce chew?: Chew is pronounced /tʃuː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of chew?: The past tense of chew is chewed.

Words near chew in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-chew.ogg.

Cite this entry: “chew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.