Chaws

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To chew or bite something, often with a repeated motion; to consume food in a way that produces a sound, typically with gusto; a term for a hefty portion of something being eaten or masticated
2. Engaging in the act of gnawing or grinding food with teeth, especially in a noisy or vigorous manner; partaking in a hearty meal; denoting a large amount of food being chewed
3. To repeatedly and energetically munch or grind down on edibles; to take in sustenance with enthusiasm while producing sound; indicates a substantial quantity of items being eaten

Etymology: The word "chaws" is the plural of "chaw," and the noun "chaw" is itself a puzzle: nobody has fully explained where its form came from. It appears in the sixteenth century as a variant of "chew," but the shape it took is unexplained. One possibility is that it developed from an older English word for the jaw, which is also where "jowl" comes from. The jaw is the organ that does the chewing, so a word for jaw turning into a word for chewing would be a natural shift. Dutch and German offer a parallel. Middle Dutch "cauwen" and Middle Low German "kauwen" both meant "to chew," and the Dutch noun "kauw" once meant the act of chewing, or a wad of tobacco. Old English had its own related words, such as "ġecow," meaning food or that which is chewed, showing that the root was already present in the language's earliest stages.

Synonyms: chews, masticates