chew
[verb]
Synonyms: bite, champ, chomp, crunch, gnaw, grind, masticate, munch

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Related Words: bite, gnaw, nibble, consume, devour, eat, gum, mumble

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English Thesaurus: bite, chew, gnaw, nip somebody/give somebody a nip, nibble, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

I. chew¹ /tʃuː/ verb
[Language: Old English; Origin: ceowan]

1. [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)

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

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

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

chew
verb
ADV. well, thoroughly | vigorously | thoughtfully | up Chew your food up thoroughly before you swallow it.
PREP. at She was chewing at her lower lip.
on The baby chewed on a rusk.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

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.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

chew
tʃu:
See: bite off more than one can chew

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲