chow

== English == === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /t͡ʃaʊ/ Rhymes: -aʊ Homophone: ciao === Etymology 1 === Shortened from chow-chow, from Chinese Pidgin English chow-chow. Compare Macanese chau-cháu. See also English chow fun, chow mein, etc. ==== Noun ==== chow (usually uncountable, plural chows) (slang, uncountable) Food, especially snacks. (Trinidad and Tobago) Unripe, or partially ripened, fruit seasoned and served as a dish, e.g. pineapple chow or mango chow. A Chow Chow. (chiefly Australia, slang, now rare) A Chinese person. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== ==== Verb ==== chow (third-person singular simple present chows, present participle chowing, simple past and past participle chowed) (slang, South Africa) To eat. ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 2 === Borrowed from Chinese 州 (zhōu). ==== Noun ==== chow (plural chows) A prefecture or district of the second rank in China, or the chief city of such a district. === Etymology 3 === Phono-semantic matching of Chinese 吃 (chī, literally “to eat”), influenced by the “food” sense of Etymology 1 above. ==== Noun ==== chow (plural chows) (mahjong) A run of three consecutive tiles of the same suit. Synonym: sequence (mahjong) A call for forming such a run using a discarded tile. Synonym: chii ===== Usage notes ===== While chow is the traditional English term, among English-speaking players of the Japanese variant of mahjong it is more common to use the Japanese-derived term chii, but typically only to refer to a call to claim a tile. The group of tiles itself is usually called a sequence instead. This follows more closely how the terms are used in East Asian languages. ===== Coordinate terms ===== kong pung ===== Translations ===== ==== Verb ==== chow (third-person singular simple present chows, present participle chowing, simple past and past participle chowed) (mahjong) To call a discarded tile to produce a chow. Synonym: chii === See also === === Anagrams === owch