chow down

British  

verb

1. informal to eat heartily

---

chow down Idioms  

1. Eat, as in He's always ready to chow down at dinner time. Originally military slang, this term is now more widely used. The noun chow in the sense of food, originating from either Chinese or pidgin English in the 18th century, also appears in such terms as chow line, a line of people waiting for food, and chow time, mealtime. [Slang; mid-1900s]

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chow down

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

Perhaps the most popular place to chow down is Tracy’s Crab Shack in Juneau.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2025

You could chow down at a taco truck or learn to draw Japanese calligraphy.

From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2024

Remove a chimpanzee from its mother, and it will still play with its friends and chow down on whatever you put in front of it.

From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer