chomp
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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chomps,
present (3rd person singular)
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chomped,
past participle, past
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chomping
present participle
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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chompsimple
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chompssimple
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have chompedperfect
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has chompedperfect
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am chompingprogressive
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are chompingprogressive
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is chompingprogressive
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have been chompingperfect progressive
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has been chompingperfect progressive
Past
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chompedsimple
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had chompedperfect
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was chompingprogressive
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were chompingprogressive
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had been chompingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of chomp
variant of champ 1
Explanation
To chomp is to bite something in a greedy, noisy way. If you've got five minutes to eat breakfast, you might quickly chomp your bagel as you walk to catch the bus. People who chomp their food are either extremely hungry or somewhat ill-mannered: watching someone chomp a hamburger and fries can make you lose your appetite. You can also use chomp as a noun, to mean "a great big bite," as when your brother grabs your slice of pizza and takes a chomp. The word has been used in American English since the mid-1600s, from the earlier verb champ.
Vocabulary lists containing chomp
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Australia's oceans are teeming with sharks, with great whites topping the list of species that might fatally chomp a human.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
If the girl was able to chomp down on her desired apple on the first try, that signified that she was destined to be with her sweetheart.
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2025
There isn’t a shiver of surprise about who gets the chomp, only disappointment that the fatalities are so bloodless — they’re mild even for PG-13.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2025
What does the bubble gum they chomp during “Too Pooped to Pop” give them?
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
“You'll be sorrier”—she did that spitty chomp old people do to not dribble—“when the ice cracks.”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Brown widow chomps hurt when they happen, leaving a burning sensation, but lack the “extreme widow envenomation symptoms,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2024
Tampopo grows its arugula under insect netting to fight the Northwest flea beetle that otherwise chomps on the leaves.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2024
“Shut up!” the queen barks at Kate, and proceeds to grill her while a menacing, Cockney-bruiser Philip chomps on a toothpick and plays with the future princess’s hair.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 20, 2022
We meet up once a month to grab food at a market and then shop, and while eating, she slurps, chomps, smacks, burps, makes “mmm” and “nom” sounds, and talks with her mouth full.
From Slate ● Feb. 19, 2019
Dismay was chewing hard, in great big chomps.
From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
At one point father and baby ate grass together, the big grass fronds flickering around their heads as they chomped.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
The most teeth-grinding great team in baseball chomped through a legacy of frustration on the sort of October night that, while once forgettable, now will live forever.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2024
As the herd chomped through their rations, another military truck carrying visitors “ooh’d” and “ahh’d” while they circled the animals.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 30, 2024
The young meat-eater had chomped off the hind legs of two parrot-like dinosaurs called caenagnathids before perishing itself.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 8, 2023
He chomped off a bit for his sister, then pushed the rest into his mouth.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
“Only one thing missing,” the Burger King president said, wiping at his mouth with his hand after chomping into one of the chain’s Whoppers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
Clips of her splashing in her pool or chomping on melons have racked up millions of views all over social media.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2025
It’s a different side to Carroll, whom NFL fans might better recognize bouncing down the sidelines for the Seattle Seahawks, or hunched over with hands on knees, chomping gum and laser focused on his players.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2025
You wouldn't recognise him now but millions around the world have watched him, as a baby, chomping on his big brother's digits.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2025
Tilly had found a huge, horseshoe-crab shell on the creek bank and was chomping away.
From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
