chomp
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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
-
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
After eating late-night stomach-turning Popeyes in Paris and shedding some tears, we stayed in a trippy '80s-styled hotel, fearful of Parisian bedbugs ready to chomp on our American flesh.
From Salon ● Jan. 4, 2025
Now they are poised to chomp off parts of the country’s center.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2024
They can consume up to 11kg of insects a year, and just one can chomp as many as 50 bees a day.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2024
Sharks around here must have tasted the chunk I lost from my forehead in the storm, thought it was jaw-snapping yum!, and wanted to chomp the rest.
From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr
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
A giant panda in the Wolong Nature Reserve chomps on bamboo.
From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh
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
In his 2010 autobiography I Am Ozzy the singer says he picked it up, stuffed it in his mouth, and chomped down.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2025
“There’s really only one reason for it to be dead,” Roberts noted, and that is “because something chomped it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 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
So did the food, just as Tyson chomped down on a sandwich that turned to mist in his mouth.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
While the biopic and buzz around Garner’s portrayal of the “Like a Virgin” star had fans of the two blondes chomping at the bit, all is not lost: Art captures life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
“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
The chaotic recording sessions featured a bucket of fire and musicians chomping vegetables.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2025
The other planes in the formation veered sharply away from him to avoid another chomping.
From "Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody" by Patrick Ness
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.
