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# chew

«chew» in Mova's school dictionary: **to break up food in your mouth with your teeth before you…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (chew, chews, chewed, chewing); noun (a chew, chews)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To chew is to break up food in your mouth with your teeth before you swallow it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#m1)

2) To chew on something is to bite it again and again, like a dog with a bone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#m2)

3) A chew is a chewy sweet or a treat for a dog. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#m3)

4) To chew something over is to think about it carefully. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In science, chewing is the first step of digestion: teeth cut and grind food, and saliva starts to break it down. In manners, chew with your mouth closed. In safety, chew food well to avoid choking, and small children should not have hard round foods. Chewing gum goes in the bin, not on the floor or under desks. Phrases: chew your food, chew gum, chew over, bite off more than you can chew (take on too much).

### examples

- Chew your food properly before you swallow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#x1)
- Please chew with your mouth closed. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#x2)
- The puppy chewed my slipper. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#x3)
- Cows chew grass for hours. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#x4)
- Put your chewing gum in the bin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#x5)
- Let me chew it over and tell you tomorrow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#x6)
- Don't bite off more than you can chew. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#x7)
- After tasting it, he chewed it well, closed his eyes, and swallowed it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/#x8)

### note

Past form chewed. Adjective: chewy. Do not confuse chew with "choose" — chew (eat), choose (pick). Dogs and puppies chew to explore and clean teeth; give them safe chew toys.

### In the corpora

- [In the death roll a crocodile spins in the water to tear chunks off its prey, because it can't chew.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/29-crocodiles-and-alligators/14/)
- [Leafcutter ants do not eat the leaves they carry: they chew them to grow a fungus garden underground and eat the fungus.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/36-insects-six-legs-ants-bees-and-wasps/9/)
- [A cow's stomach has four parts, and it chews its food twice, bringing it back up as cud.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/96-the-petting-farm-goats-sheep-pigs-rabbits-and-washing-hands/13/)
- [Leafcutter ants cut and carry leaves but do not eat them; they grow a fungus on chewed leaf paste and eat the fungus.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/157-the-amazon-forest-floor/4/)
- [Plants make bitter or poisonous chemicals after being attacked; a chewed tomato plant makes its leaves harder to digest.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/252-plants-deeper-do-trees-talk-fungi-warning-smells-and-giant-clones/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «chew» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chew/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.