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• chow
  chow

  noun

  food, especially hearty dishes or a meal.
• Chow
  Chow

  noun

  a contemptuous term used to refer to a Chinese person.

chow

¹ American  

[chou] / tʃaʊ /

noun

1. food, especially hearty dishes or a meal.

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verb phrase

1. chow down to eat; eat a meal, especially the main meal of the day.

   In the army we usually chow down at 6 p.m.

chow ² American  

[chou] / tʃaʊ /

noun

(often initial capital letter)

1. chow chow.

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Chow ³ American  

[chou] / tʃaʊ /

noun

Australian Disparaging and Offensive.

1. a contemptuous term used to refer to a Chinese person.

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chow British  

/ tʃaʊ /

noun

1. informal food

2. short for chow-chow

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Etymology

Origin of chow¹

1855–60, short for chow-chow

Origin of chow²

Short form

Origin of Chow³

First recorded in 1870–75; special use of spelling variant ( Chow ) of Chou ( def. )

Explanation

Chow is food. You might offer to make your little sister her favorite chow for her birthday: macaroni and cheese with chocolate cake for dessert. The word chow is an informal way to say "food" or "meal." Someone happily gobbling tacos might say, "I just love Mexican chow," or your dad might open up a pizza delivery box and yell, "Time for chow, everybody!" Chow is an American English word that originated in California around 1856, from the Chinese pidgin English chow-chow, "food," which probably originated with the Chinese cha, "mixed."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chow Chow

Artificial intelligence may have already taken a bite out of software this year, but a profit warning from IBM indicates that it’s hardware’s turn to chow down.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026

Over in the canteen, Syrian and African musicians chow down with Posdnuos from De La Soul and sitar legend Anoushka Shankar.

From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026

The findings showed that mice strongly favored carbohydrate-rich foods and stopped eating their standard chow altogether.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 14, 2026

To tell that complicated story, Hethington depends on dishes like Guyanese chow mein and Trini-Chinese chicken.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026

“Where’s the dog chow? The stuff in the red bag with green stripes?”

From "Crenshaw" by Katherine Applegate

Jerry Chow, chief technology officer of IBM Quantum-Centric Supercomputing, said at a press conference earlier this month that the progress the quantum industry has made in the past two decades is “is just amazing.”

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

Chow said the partnership is off to a promising start.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2026

“Podcasts have become like a cultural hub and curator of things that are happening in the world,” Chow said.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2026

“What we’re seeing is this groundswell of pushing the envelope of what can be done,” Chow continued.

From Barron's ● May 5, 2026

Mia was right: by the time the custody hearing began, there had been a series of news stories—in print and on television—on Bebe Chow and her fitness to be a mother.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng