Word.ws English Dictionary

chivey

chivey is the archaic form of chivvy.

Meaning of chivvy

Verb

chivvy (third-person singular simple present chivvies, present participle chivvying, simple past and past participle chivvied)

  1. (UK, transitive) To coerce or hurry along, as by persistent request.
    • Odd's wouns! it was a proper hunt. Away went my gentlemen, whooping like madmen, with their coat skirts flapping in the breeze, chivying on the dogs and having a rare morning's sport.1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Of the Swordsman with the Brown Jacket”, in Micah Clarke: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co […], →OCLC, page 316
  2. (UK, transitive) To subject to harassment or verbal abuse.
    • He wos allus willin fur to give me somethink he wos, though Mrs. Sangsby she was allus a chivying on me—like everybody everywheres.1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Stop Him!”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 447
  3. (UK, transitive) To sneak up on or rapidly approach.
  4. (UK, transitive) To pursue as in a hunt.
    • to chivvy the fox
    Synonyms:
    chase, hunt

See all 5 meanings of chivvy

Forms of chivey

third-person singular presentchiveys
present participlechiveying
past participlechiveyed
pastchiveyed

Questions about chivey

What is chivey the archaic form of?
Chivey is the archaic form of chivvy.

Words near chivey in the dictionary

  1. chive-fencer
  2. chive-fencers
  3. chived
  4. Chivers
  5. chives
  6. chivey
  7. chiveyed
  8. chiveying
  9. chiveys
  10. chiviatite
  11. chiviatites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chivey (page history and authors); chivvy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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