Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To vex or harass with petty attacks.
  • intransitive verb To maneuver or secure gradually.
  • intransitive verb To scurry.
  • noun A hunt or chase.
  • noun A hunting cry.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb same as chivy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To subject to harassment or verbal abuse.
  • verb To coerce, as by persistent request.
  • verb To sneak up on or rapidly approach.
  • verb To pursue as in a hunt.
  • noun A goad.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb annoy continually or chronically

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Variant of chevy, a hunt, hunting cry, from Chevy Chase, title of a ballad about a border skirmish, from Cheviot Chase, a large unenclosed hunting tract in the Cheviot Hills.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • From Isaac Asimov's essay "Skewered", "I resisted that, along with repeated nudges from others in the years that followed... I was cornered by a fan and has Skewes' number requested of me. So I gave in. Eleven years of chivvying is enough."

    September 10, 2007

  • Another usage on chivvied.

    October 15, 2008

  • "My dear, I should like to stick you full of barbed arrows like a p-p-pin cushion...Where do you lurk? I shall come down your burrow and ch-chivvy you out like an old st-t-toat." -Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited, Waugh

    April 6, 2011