Other forms: munching
To munch is to chew steadily and audibly, and with enjoyment. Munching an apple, munching crisps, a horse munching hay. The sound is half the word.
It is informal and cheerful, and it is nearly always used of something crisp — nobody munches soup. Munch on is the usual pattern with a named food. The related munchies is slang for both snack food and the hunger for it, and is worth knowing only because it turns up constantly in casual speech. Compare crunch, which is the sound alone, and chew, which is the neutral word for the action.
1verbmunchTo chew steadily and noisily, with enjoyment.
“He sat munching an apple through the whole film.”
synonyms: chomp, crunch
2verbeatTo eat snacks steadily.
“They munched their way through two bags of crisps.”
munch is a way of chewing.
Also accepted in games: chomp
Middle English
monchen
English, today
munch
From Middle English monchen, a variant of mocchen, mucchen "to munch (food); chew audibly"; > Modern English dialectal a doublet of mouch, probably imitative of the sound in origin (compare crunch; German mampfen).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Everyday Verbs, Sounds & Noises