chaw

(c̸hô)

noun, transitive verb, intransitive verb

Now Dial. chew

See chaw in American Heritage Dictionary 4

intr. & tr.v. chawed, chaw·ing, chaws
To chew.
noun
A chew, especially of tobacco.

Origin:

Origin: Variant of chew

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Regional Note: Chaw has a wide range of senses in regional expressions. One Northern and Western meaning of the verb is “to bawl someone out”: He chawed her good. A Southern sense is “to get the best of someone in a bantering contest” or simply “to embarrass”: “That compliment sort of chawed me” (Publication of the American Dialect Society). The noun chaw can mean “a twist of chewing tobacco” or “an attachment or hold (on someone)”; for example, a flirtatious woman in Tennessee is “tryin' to git a chaw on a feller” (Dialect Notes).

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