chow

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of a breed of heavyset dog originating in China, having a long, dense, reddish-brown or black coat and a blue-black tongue. Also called chow chow.
2. n. Food; victuals.
3. v. To eat: chowed down on the meat and potatoes.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To chew.
2. n. The jowl: used only in the phrase “cheek for chow” (that is, cheek by jowl).
3. To grumble.
4. n. A word forming part of the names of many places in China, indicating either a prefecture or district of the second rank or the chief city of such a district: thus, Ning-hai-chow may mean either the district of Ning-hai or the city of Ning-hai. Sometimes spelled chao, chau, and choo.
5. n. A unit of weight in Bombay, used for gold and silver, and equal to three tenths of a troy grain.
6. n. A unit of the nature of the square of a mass, used in the East Indies in the valuation of pearls. A Madras chow is 48 square grains troy, a Bombay chow 15.7 square grains.
7. n. A Chinaman. [Colloq., Australia.]

Wiktionary

1. n. slang, uncountable Food, especially snacks.
2. n. A Chinese breed of dog; the chow-chow.
3. n. slang A Chinese person.
4. v. slang, South Africa To eat.
5. v. To (use a tile or tiles to) piece together a winning combination of tiles.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A prefecture or district of the second rank in China, or the chief city of such a district; -- often part of the name of a city, as in Foochow.
2. n. a breed of thick-coated medium-sized dogs with fluffy curled tails and distinctive blue-black tongues; -- same as chowchow{3}, n..

WordNet 3.0

1. n. informal terms for a meal
2. n. breed of medium-sized dogs with a thick coat and fluffy curled tails and distinctive blue-black tongues; believed to have originated in northern China
3. n. the imperial dynasty of China from 1122 to 221 BC; notable for the rise of Confucianism and Taoism