chevy

UK/ˈt͡ʃɛvi/US/ˈt͡ʃɛvi/

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

To chevy is to keep at somebody to hurry up, chasing and nagging them along. Chevy them along.

It is British and informal and is now spelt chivvy at least as often. To chevy somebody is friendlier than to harass them and more persistent than to remind them.

Definitions of chevy

1verbchevyBritish informal: to keep at somebody to hurry up, chasing and nagging them along.C2
“She had to chevy all four of them out of the house.”

chevy is an action.

Also accepted in games: chivvy

Where it comes from

Probably from The Ballad of Chevy Chase of 1549, about a hunt in the Cheviot hills that ended in a battle.

Built from

chase · English — large country estate where game may be hunted

The noun is probably derived from the title of The Ballad of Chevy Chase, first published in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549); the ballad is about a hunt taking place on a chase (“large country estate where game may be hunted”) in the Cheviot Hills between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, and is thought to allude to the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. The verb is derived from the noun.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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