chew

B2 Topic:Time

US /tʃɪʊ̯/ UK /tʃuː/ See IPA manual

Freq #5796

Meanings

1

verb
To crush food with your teeth before swallowing it.

Make sure to chew your food well before you swallow.
2

verb
To bite and tear at something repeatedly with the teeth.

The puppy chewed a hole in my favourite shoes.
3

verb
To think carefully about something over a period of time.

Give me a day to chew the idea before I decide.
4

noun
The act of chewing.

She gave the gum a few chews and then blew a bubble.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to crush food with your... bitechompcrunch masticate

2 verb · to bite and tear at... grind rip shred tear

3 verb · to think carefully about... contemplate mull ponder ruminate

Word family

Forms chewedchewingchews

Derived forms chew-and-spitchewablechewerchewyprechewrag-chewingrechew

Common collocations

Etymology

* 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.

cho Middle English *cēo Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Time

External links

# chew

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** verb, noun
**IPA (US):** /tʃɪʊ̯/
**IPA (UK):** /tʃuː/
**Frequency rank:** 5796

## Meanings
1. To crush food with your teeth before swallowing it.
2. To bite and tear at something repeatedly with the teeth.
3. To think carefully about something over a period of time.
4. The act of chewing.

## Examples
- Make sure to chew your food well before you swallow.
- The puppy chewed a hole in my favourite shoes.
- Give me a day to chew the idea before I decide.
- She gave the gum a few chews and then blew a bubble.

## Derived Forms
- chew-and-spit
- chewable
- chewer
- chewy
- prechew
- rag-chewing
- rechew

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: cho
- Root: *cēo

## Etymology
* 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.

## Topics
- Time

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