Chow vs Chaw - What's the difference?
chow | chaw |
(slang, uncountable) Food, especially snacks.
A Chinese breed of dog; the .
* 1914 , (Saki), ‘The Lull’, Beasts and Superbeasts :
* {{quote-news, year=1988, date=March 4, author=Jane Weinberg, title=First Person: Me and Georgia O'Keeffe, work=Chicago Reader
, passage=While we were talking, one of the chows , the rusty one, had come over to me and I was absently petting him. }}
A Chinese person.
* 1977 , , The Honourable Schoolboy , Folio Society 2010, p. 11:
*:‘Now look here old man if you should ever bump into an interesting Chow from over the river – one with access , follow me? – just you remember High Haven!’
(Mahjong) To (use a tile or tiles to) piece together a winning combination of tiles.
* 2007 , Eleanor Noss Whitney, A Mah Jong Handbook: How to Play, Score, and Win , page 154:
(informal, uncountable) Chewing tobacco.
(countable) A plug or wad of chewing tobacco.
* 1889 , , Chapter XXI,
(obsolete) The jaw.
(archaic, or, nonstandard) To chew; to grind with one's teeth; to masticate (food, or the cud); to champ (at the bit).
* Surrey
* 1884 , , Chapter XXIX,
To ruminate in thought; to consider; to keep the mind working upon; to brood over.
(UK, slang) To steal.
As nouns the difference between chow and chaw
is that chow is food, especially snacks while chaw is chewing tobacco.As verbs the difference between chow and chaw
is that chow is to eat while chaw is to chew; to grind with one's teeth; to masticate (food, or the cud); to champ (at the bit).As a proper noun Chow
is a common Chinese surname.chow
English
Etymology 1
Shortened from (chow-chow).Noun
(en-noun)- I'm going to pick up some chow for dinner.
- ‘I'd try and grapple with him myself, only I've got my chow in my room, you know, and he goes for pigs wherever he finds them.’
citation
Derived terms
* chow downEtymology 2
From Chinese.Verb
(en verb)- while the adversary on his right will repeatedly bury in the discard the very tiles he wishes to chow but can't.
chaw
English
Noun
(en noun)- When the doctor told him to quit smoking, Harvey switched to chaw , but then developed cancer of the mouth.
- My uncle's way to convince us not to use tobacco was to give us each a big chaw , and then get us to swallow it.
- "YOU give him a chaw', did you? So did your sister's cat's grandmother. You pay me back the ' chaws you've awready borry'd off'n me, Lafe Buckner, then I'll loan you one or two ton of it, and won't charge you no back intrust, nuther."
- (Spenser)
Verb
(en verb)- (Spenser)
- The trampling steed, with gold and purple trapped, / Chawing the foamy bit, there fiercely stood.
- (Dryden)
- Some pikey's chawed my bike.