Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use chew in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

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. Example: “Make sure to chew thoroughly, and don't talk with your mouth full!”

Examples of chew by meaning

verbTo crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws; done to food to soften it and break it down by the...

  • 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.
  • 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

verbTo 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.

verbThe condition of something being torn or ground up mechanically.

  • Avoiding Tape Chew.1995, Keyboard, volume 21, numbers 7-12, page 138

verbTo 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.

verbTo 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.

nounThe act of chewing; mastication with the mouth.

  • I popped the gum into my mouth and gave it a chew.

nounLevel 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.2014, Christian F. Puglisi, Relae: A Book of Ideas, →ISBN, page 140
  • No matter what I did to the squid, it was a tough chew.2015, Jim "Sunny" Edwards, A Footprint in the Sand: The Fishing Edge, Fulton Books, Inc., →ISBN

nounA small sweet, such as a taffy, that is eaten by chewing.

  • Phillip purchased a bag of licorice chews at the drugstore.

More sentences with chew

  • It disgusts me to see her chew with her mouth open.From the entry disgust
  • A dab of chewing gum will fix your note to the bulletin board.From the entry fix
  • Chew with your mouth shut — were you raised in a barn?From the entry raise
  • His social skills are nonexistent: he chewed with his mouth open all through dinner.From the entry nonexistent
  • We're not supposed to waste time chewing the fat with the customers.From the entry chew the fat
  • What a bad restaurant! The beef was so rubbery I thought I'd never finish chewing it.From the entry rubbery
  • The new puppy has been chewing on everything, and my favorite afghan has become frazzled.From the entry frazzle
  • Tanks are not street-legal because their treads chew up the pavement.From the entry street-legal
  • She had to chew up the food for him because his teeth are too small.From the entry chew up
  • I'd sooner chew off my hand than go out with you.From the entry chew off
  • Spit that out! I've had enough! As of now, chewing gum is banned in this school.From the entry as of now
  • The girls round the table chewed moonishly, wrapped in their morning stupor.From the entry moonishly
  • There was chewing gum stuck to my trainer soles.From the entry trainer
  • The goat is chewing on your shirt!From the entry chewing
  • Scrape the chewing gum off with a knife.From the entry scrape
  • I think I bit off more than I could chew when I agreed to paint this house by myself.From the entry bite off more than one can chew
  • His dad chewed him out after seeing his poor grades.From the entry chew out
  • The only issue I have had with my cycler was when the cat started chewing on the connecting line.From the entry cycler
  • The chewing gum had a fruitlike fragrance.From the entry fruitlike
  • The tape got chewed up in the cassette player.From the entry chew up
  • In your pasture management program, you need to anticipate that goats will try to chew on just about anything; that's the nature of the beast.From the entry nature of the beast
  • A piece of my dog's plastic chew toy broke off and he swallowed it, requiring surgery to remove it. The procedure was very expensive, but fortunately I had pet insurance.From the entry pet insurance
  • "One of our kittens started chewing on the chair the other day and now they're all doing it! Just goes to show that one bad apple can spoil the barrel."From the entry one bad apple can spoil the barrel
  • Chew — who travels with a small security detail — is the controlling force at TikTok.2024 May 3, Jacob Bernstein, Madison Malone Kircher, Sapna Maheshwari, “TikTok’s Boss Goes From Reserved Tech Exec to Met Gala Chair”, in…. From the entry security detail
  • One of my supervisors chewed me out for rolling my eyes at her during meetings.2022, Devon Price, “Introduction”, in Michele Eniclerico, editor, Unmasking Autism, New York: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 2. From the entry chew out
  • I let him chew the tip of a burgundy leaf and taste how sourwood got its name.2021, Richard Powers, Bewilderment, Hutchinson Heinemann, page 17. From the entry sourwood

Meaning of chew

  1. 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.
  2. verb To grind, tear, or otherwise degrade or demolish something with teeth or as with teeth.
  3. verb The condition of something being torn or ground up mechanically.

Full definition of chew

Questions about chew in a sentence

How do you use chew in a sentence?
Chew is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Make sure to chew thoroughly, and don't talk with your mouth full!”
What is a short sentence with chew?
“Avoiding Tape 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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chew (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use chew in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/chew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.