chav

American  

[chav] / tʃæv /

noun

Chiefly British Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.

1. a young person who wears fashionable sportswear or flashy jewelry but is regarded as badly behaved or as having lower-class taste.

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chav British  

/ tʃæv /

noun

1. informal a young working-class person whose tastes, although sometimes expensive, are considered vulgar by some

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Usage

What does chav mean? Chavs is a UK derogatory slang word for a young hooligan who wears designer clothes and starts fights, usually seen as lower class.

Other Word Forms

• chavish
  adjective
• chavvy
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of chav

First recorded in 1995–2000; perhaps shortening of British slang chavvy “baby, child,” or from Romani chavo “(Romani) boy, youth, unmarried man” or Romani chavi “baby, child,” probably from unrecorded Middle Indic chāva, chāpa “young of an animal,” from Sanskrit śāva

Example Sentences

"Back then I was just known as the Blackpool chav," says Millie Bracewell, perhaps better known as Millie B.

From BBC • Jan. 20, 2023

You, sir, are a slob, a slouch, what the Brits occasionally might call a chav.

From Golf Digest • Feb. 27, 2020

There are loads of people who don’t like me from years ago, because they thought I was a chav or whatever, so it has just morphed into something different.

From The Guardian • May 31, 2016

The suburb’s most faithful inhabitant and its uncrowned king is the gopnik, the Russian equivalent of a chav.

From The Guardian • May 28, 2014

But this is not the way to deal with the word chav, Jones says.

From BBC • Jun. 3, 2011