chew

chew

I

chew¹ /tʃuː/ verb1. [intransitive and transitive] to bite food several times before swallowing it:
    This meat’s so tough I can hardly chew it!
    chew at/on
    a dog chewing on a bone
2. [intransitive and transitive] to bite something continuously in order to taste it or because you are nervous
    chew on
    We gave the dog an old shoe to chew on.
    chew your lip/nails
    chew gum/tobacco
3. chew the cud if a cow or sheep chews the cud, it keeps biting on food it has brought up from its stomach
4. chew the fat informal to have a long friendly conversation
⇨ bite off more than you can chew at bite¹(10)
     

THESAURUS

   ▪ bite to use your teeth to cut, crush, or chew something: The dog bit me! | I sometimes bite my fingernails when I’m nervous. | He bit into the apple.
   ▪ chew to keep biting something that is in your mouth: Helen was chewing a piece of gum. | He was chewing on a cigar.
   ▪ gnaw if an animal gnaws something, it bites it repeatedly: The dog was in the yard gnawing on a bone.
   ▪ nip somebody/give somebody a nip to give someone or something a small sharp bite: When I took the hamster out of his cage, he nipped me.
   ▪ nibble to take a lot of small bites from something: A fish nibbled at the bait. | She sat at her desk, nibbling her sandwich.
   ▪ sink your teeth into somebody/something to bite someone or something with a lot of force, so that your teeth go right into them: The dog sank its teeth into my leg. | He sank his teeth into the steak.
   ▪ chomp on something informal to bite something and chew it in a noisy way: The donkey was chomping on a carrot. | He was chomping away on big slice of toast.
   ▪ sting if an insect stings you, it makes a very small hole in your skin. You use sting about bees, wasps, and scorpions, and bite about mosquitoes, ants, spiders, and snakes: She stepped on a wasps’ nest and must have been stung at least 20 times.
     
chew on something phrasal verb
  informal to think carefully about something for a period of time
chew somebody ↔ out phrasal verb American English informal
  to talk angrily to someone in order to show them that you disapprove of what they have done:
    John couldn’t get the guy to cooperate and so I had to call and chew him out.
chew something ↔ over phrasal verb
  to think carefully about something for a period of time:
    Let me chew it over for a few days.
chew something ↔ up phrasal verb
  1. to damage or destroy something by tearing it into small pieces:
    Be careful if you use that video recorder. It tends to chew tapes up.
  2. to bite something many times with your teeth so that you can make it smaller or softer and swallow it:
    The dog’s chewed up my slippers again.

II

chew² noun [countable]
1. the act of biting something many times with your teeth
2. a sweet that you chew
3. a piece of tobacco that you chew but do not swallow