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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chuck.

Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other animal.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other animal.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Food.

    US · countable · dated · slang · uncountable
  3. A mechanical device that holds an object firmly in place, for example holding a drill bit in a high-speed rotating drill or grinder.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Variant of chock.

verb/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. To place in a chuck, or hold by means of a chuck, as in turning.

  2. To bore or turn (a hole) in a revolving piece held in a chuck.

Where this word comes from

Variant of chock.

noun/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. A chicken, a hen.

    dialectal · obsolete
  2. A clucking sound.

  3. A friend or close acquaintance; term of endearment.

    slang
    Are you all right, chuck?
Where this word comes from

From Middle English chuk, of onomatopoeic origin, imitative of a hen's cluck.

verb/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. To make a clucking sound.

  2. To call, as a hen her chickens.

  3. To chuckle; to laugh.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English chukken, from the noun (see above).

noun/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. A gentle touch or tap.

    She gave him an affectionate chuck under the chin.
  2. A casual throw.

    informal
  3. A throw, an incorrect bowling action.

    informal
  4. An act or instance of vomiting.

    slang
  5. On rhythm guitar or mandolin etc., the muting of a chord by lifting the fretting fingers immediately after strumming, producing a percussive effect.

Where this word comes from

From earlier chock, likely imitative, but perhaps also from Middle English chokken (“to thrust, pierce, cram”), from Picard Old French chuquier (“to collide, strike”, intransitive verb), from Middle Dutch schocken (“to bump, shake”). Doublet of shock and shuck.

verb/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. To playfully give a light touch, stroke, tap, etc., to someone, especially under the chin.

  2. To throw, especially in a careless or inaccurate manner.

    informal · transitive
    Chuck that magazine to me, would you?
  3. To throw; to bowl with an incorrect action.

    intransitive
  4. To discard, to throw away.

    informal · transitive
    This food's gone off - you'd better chuck it.
  5. To jilt; to dump.

    informal · transitive
    She's chucked me for another man!
  6. To give up; to stop doing; to quit.

    dated · informal · transitive
  7. To vomit.

    intransitive · slang
  8. To leave; to depart; to bounce.

    South-Africa · intransitive · slang
    Let's chuck.
  9. On rhythm guitar or mandolin etc.: to mute a chord by lifting the fretting fingers immediately after strumming, producing a percussive effect.

Where this word comes from

From earlier chock, likely imitative, but perhaps also from Middle English chokken (“to thrust, pierce, cram”), from Picard Old French chuquier (“to collide, strike”, intransitive verb), from Middle Dutch schocken (“to bump, shake”). Doublet of shock and shuck.

noun/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. A small pebble.

    Scotland
  2. Money.

    Scotland · in-plural · obsolete · slang
Where this word comes from

From chuck (“to toss”).

noun/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. A pair of nunchaku, especially when using two.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Clipping of nunchuck, variant of nunchaku.

noun/t͡ʃʌk//t͡ʃʊk/Ireland, Northern-England
  1. Abbreviation of woodchuck.

    abbreviation · alt-of
Where this word comes from

From woodchuck.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.