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
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
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
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
Then he flops down and chomps on a stuffed Chewy Vuiton Paris bone toy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2025
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
Rapping like a cartoon rottweiler, Em chomps his way through the beat in a way that is linguistically dizzying.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 20, 2020
When my dad comes back, he chomps his toothpicks hard and angry.
From "Al Capone Does My Shirts" by Gennifer Choldenko
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
After Syria’s loss of the Golan Heights in 1967, Israel chomped off bits of Lebanese and Syrian territory, cutting off lands where Kfar Chouba residents would grow wheat and olives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
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
The kid had done the unthinkable, he had chomped on one of Mars’s own bars.
From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli
He got his start by creating beats for stars including Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, before chomping up the charts in his own right.
From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2026
Tom Curtis has gone viral by recording a video of himself chomping on a Whopper and even posting his phone number online.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
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
There is, of course, some suspicious, terrifying revelation promised that will surely result in lots of screaming and chomping.
From Salon ● Jan. 3, 2025
And it is the lovely Penelope, and she’s chomping hard on cinnamon gum.
From "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie
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.
