chewy

UK/ˈt͡ʃuː.i/US/ˈt͡ʃuː.i/

adjectiveB1+2 meanings Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,577 of 15,258leans spoken

Chewy food makes your jaw work before it gives way. A caramel that glues your back teeth together, the soft middle of a good cookie, a bagel, a piece of steak you are still working on long after everyone else has put their knife down.

Chewy swings between praise and complaint depending on what you are eating. A chewy brownie is exactly what a brownie should be; chewy beef means the meat was tough and you paid too much for it. Bread, sweets and biscuits are chewy and that is good news; meat and vegetables are chewy and that is bad news. The opposite changes with the food as well — crumbly for a biscuit, tender for meat, crisp for a crust. Chewy is chew plus -y, the ending that also builds sticky, greasy and crunchy, and it takes the ordinary endings: chewier, chewiest.

Definitions of chewy

1adjectivetextureNeeding a lot of chewing before it gives way; soft but springy under the teeth.B1+~98%
“These cookies are crisp at the edge and chewy in the middle.”
synonyms: gummy, sticky
2adjectivechewyUnpleasantly tough, so that meat takes too long to eat.B1+~2%
“The lamb was dry and chewy after an hour too long in the oven.”
- Said"This steak is chewy; I think they cooked it in a hurry."
- WrittenThe bread was chewy in the good way, with a crust that fought back.
- UsedRest the meat after cooking or it will be chewy.
- ContrastChewy, not tough. Tough will not be cut; chewy can be eaten, but it takes a while. tough →
- Not thisCrunchy is not chewy. Crunchy breaks with a noise; chewy stretches and holds on.
- Exchange"How's the squid?""Chewy. Order the fish next time."
- SimplyThe sweets are chewy. They last a long while.
Patternchewy + noun (meat, bread, sweets) · a bit / too chewy · chew · chewiness
synonyms: tough, rubbery

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Remember it

CHEWy → you CHEW and CHEW

It is chew + y: you chew and chew and chew, and the meat is still in your mouth.

hooks ontochew

Also practised as

adjectiveNeeding a lot of chewing before it gives way.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*ǵyewh₁-
Proto-Germanic
*kewwaną
Proto-West Germanic
*keuwan
Old English
ċēowan
Middle English
chewen
English
chew
English, today
chewy

From chew + -y. chew comes from Middle English chewen, from Old English ċēowan, from Proto-West Germanic keuwan, from Proto-Germanic kewwaną, from Proto-Indo-European ǵyewh₁-. Cognate with West Frisian kôgje, Low German käwwen, Dutch kauwen, German kauen; also Latin gingīva (“gums”), txb śuwaṃ (“to eat”), Polish żuć (“to chew”), Persian جویدن, ps ژُوَل (“to bite, gnaw”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

chewy in the wild

A variety called Chewy Spree, which has a candy shell and a chewy center, comes in 12-ounce pouches, rather than rolls.
Spree (candy)
Panforte is a chewy Italian dessert containing fruit and nuts.
Panforte
Then it is pan-fried, which gives it crisp edges and a chewy texture.
Cong you bing
Many layers make up the interior, contributing to its chewy texture.
Cong you bing
Texture and appearance vary with ingredients and preparation, ranging from moist, chewy cookies to ones that are crispy.
Chocolate chip cookie

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the ċēowan family

chew

chewy — used about once every 4,818 pages · #9,577 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of chewy

1adjectivetextureNeeding a lot of chewing before it gives way; soft but springy under the teeth.B1+~98%

“These cookies are crisp at the edge and chewy in the middle.”

synonyms: gummy, sticky

2adjectivechewyUnpleasantly tough, so that meat takes too long to eat.B1+~2%

“The lamb was dry and chewy after an hour too long in the oven.”

Said"This steak is chewy; I think they cooked it in a hurry."
WrittenThe bread was chewy in the good way, with a crust that fought back.
UsedRest the meat after cooking or it will be chewy.
ContrastChewy, not tough. Tough will not be cut; chewy can be eaten, but it takes a while. tough →
Not thisCrunchy is not chewy. Crunchy breaks with a noise; chewy stretches and holds on.
Exchange"How's the squid?""Chewy. Order the fish next time."
SimplyThe sweets are chewy. They last a long while.

Patternchewy + noun (meat, bread, sweets) · a bit / too chewy · chew · chewiness

synonyms: tough, rubbery

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.