Chow

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /tʃaÊŠ/

• Rhymes: -aÊŠ

• Homophones: ciao

Shortened from chow-chow.

Full definition of chow

Noun

1. (slang, uncountable) Food, especially snacks.I'm going to pick up some chow for dinner.
2. A Chinese breed of dog; the .
• 1914, Saki, ‘The Lull’, Beasts and Superbeasts:‘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.’
• 1988, March 4, Jane Weinberg, First Person: Me and Georgia O'Keeffe, While we were talking, one of the chows, the rusty one, had come over to me and I was absently petting him.
3. (chiefly Australian, slang, now rare) A Chinese person.
• 1977, John Le Carré, 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!’

Derived terms

• chow down

Verb

1. (slang, South Africa) To eat.

From Chinese.

Verb

1. (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:... while the adversary on his right will repeatedly bury in the discard the very tiles he wishes to chow but can't.