Definitions

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

  • noun A champion.
  • intransitive verb To bite or chew upon noisily.
  • intransitive verb To work the jaws and teeth vigorously.
  • idiom (champ at the bit) To show impatience at being held back or delayed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The name given to a valuable timber, the product of Michelia excelsa, a tall magnoliaceous tree of the eastern Himalaya. The wood is soft but very durable, and of an olive-brown color.
  • noun The act of biting repeatedly, as a horse on his bit.
  • noun Mashed potatoes.
  • To bite repeatedly and impatiently, as a horse his bit.
  • To bite into small pieces; craunch; chew; munch: sometimes followed by up.
  • To pound; crush; mash: as, to champ potatoes.
  • To perform the action of biting repeatedly and impatiently: generally followed by on or upon.
  • noun A field.
  • noun In lace-making: The ground upon which the pattern is embroidered or applied. The filling of brides or links between the figures of the pattern of lace that has no ground or bottom.
  • Hard; firm: as, a good champ road.

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

  • noun (Arch.) The field or ground on which carving appears in relief.
  • intransitive verb To bite or chew impatiently.
  • transitive verb To bite with repeated action of the teeth so as to be heard.
  • transitive verb To bite into small pieces; to crunch.

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

  • noun countable shortened form of champion
  • noun Ireland, uncountable a meal of mashed potatoes and scallions
  • verb To bite or chew, especially noisily or impatiently.
  • noun architecture The field or ground on which carving appears in relief.
  • noun informal Champagne.

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

  • noun someone who has won first place in a competition
  • verb chafe at the bit, like horses
  • verb chew noisily

Etymologies

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

[Probably imitative.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See champion

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

uncertain, probably imitative

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French champ ("field")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From champagne by shortening.

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Examples

  • So when it's noted that there is a defending champ in this year's provincial junior women's championship at Charleswood Curling Club, the term champ -- in all its singular glory

    Winnipeg Sun 2009

  • The champ is giving the right, a little rope a dope, just before he pounds him and drops him for the knockout.

    Poll: Confidence in Obama drops; No gains for GOP 2009

  • The conference champ gets a Bowl Championship Series bid if it finishes in the top 12 in the final BCS standings or if it is in the top 16 and ahead of a champ from a conference with an automatic bid. ...

    Mountain West Conference outlook 2009

  • The three-time Tour champ is now facing a two-year ban and losing his 2010 Tour victory, something he said is “intolerable.”

    Spaniards believe Alberto Contador’s beef tale 2010

  • The three-time Tour champ is now facing a two-year ban and losing his 2010 Tour victory, something he said is “intolerable.”

    Spaniards believe Alberto Contador’s beef explanation 2010

  • Apparently I have made friends with the 'in' part of the team; the current team captain, current latin champ, latin teacher and top ballroom dancer.

    Latin flavour HayleyM 2008

  • Bigben stop the madness stop hating on obama you know who the new champ is and so does the rest of the world.

    Three more superdelegates for Obama 2008

  • Apparently I have made friends with the 'in' part of the team; the current team captain, current latin champ, latin teacher and top ballroom dancer.

    Archive 2008-05-01 HayleyM 2008

  • This week's box office champ is a period western, 3: 10 to Yuma.

    Archive 2007-09-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • This week's box office champ is a period western, 3: 10 to Yuma.

    Rant Matthew Guerrieri 2007

Comments

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  • 'Champ' is the older word, with 'chomp' an originally dialectal variant that has become common latterly. In 'champ/chomp at the bit', both seem about equally common (going by Google, even in UK usage). While 'chomp at the bit' is known from 1937, 'champ at the bit' has been found back to 1885; however, the earliest sources of both are all U.S., so it doesn't look as if a BrE 'champ' has been supplanted by AmE 'chomp' in this idiom.

    August 12, 2008