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usually uncountable, plural chows
(slang, uncountable) Food, especially snacks. quotations
Donlon says, "Well, we're rich and we got beaucoup beer and beaucoup chow. Now all we need is the Bob Hope show."
1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, page 93
(Trinidad and Tobago) Unripe, or partially ripened, fruit seasoned and served as a dish, e.g. pineapple chow or mango chow. examples
A Chow Chow. quotations examples
‘I'd try and grapple with him myself, only I've got my chow in my room, you know, and he goes for pigs wherever he finds them.’
1914, Saki, ‘The Lull’, Beasts and Superbeasts
While we were talking, one of the chows, the rusty one, had come over to me and I was absently petting him.
1988 March 4, Jane Weinberg, “First Person: Me and Georgia O'Keeffe”, in Chicago Reader
(chiefly Australia, slang, now rare) A Chinese person. quotations
These were the creatures Nawnim had been amazed to see about him on the day of his arrival. When he inquired about them, Anna told him they were Japs an' Chows.
1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 74
‘Now look here old man if you should ever bump into an interesting Chow from over the river – one with access, follow me? – just you remember High Haven!’
1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 11
third-person singular simple present chows, present participle chowing, simple past and past participle chowed
(slang, South Africa) To eat.
plural chows
A prefecture or district of the second rank in China, or the chief city of such a district. examples
(mahjong) A run of three consecutive tiles of the same suit. examples
(mahjong) To call a discarded tile to produce a chow. quotations examples
[…] while the adversary on his right will repeatedly bury in the discard the very tiles he wishes to chow but can't.
2007, Eleanor Noss Whitney, A Mah Jong Handbook: How to Play, Score, and Win, page 154