Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as chico.
  • noun The mucilaginous seeds of Sterculia Chica, a South American tree. See Sterculia.

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

  • noun See chica.

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

  • noun A fermented beverage, most commonly made from maize, grapes or apples.

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

  • noun an oriental tobacco pipe with a long flexible tube connected to a container where the smoke is cooled by passing through water

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Spanish chicha, from a Haitian language.

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Examples

  • The corn has long been used to make a beer called chicha, which is drunk especially during ritual or political activities.

    The Goddess and the Bull MICHAEL BALTER 2005

  • One day when they had been at work, on returning to their hut, they found in it some small loaves of bread, and a jar of chicha, which is the beverage used in this country in place of wine, made of boiled maize.

    History of the Incas Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

  • The people, as I have said, are very polished and intelligent, and go always clad and shod; they eat maize both cooked and raw, and drink much chicha, which is a beverage made from maize after the fashion of beer.

    Relación de la conquista del Perú. English Pedro Sancho 1918

  • Their beverage, called chicha -- a name common throughout

    The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • In one episode Mr. Calagione learns to make a fermented corn drink called chicha from a group of elderly women in Peru.

    NYT > Home Page By JOSH EELLS 2010

  • It´s essentially chicken stew mixed with a type of maize alcohol called chicha - it tastes disgusting by itself but the food was not bad, even with my contribution!

    TravelPod.com TravelStream? ? Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2010

  • Over the last several millennia it's been popped like popcorn, made into flour, brewed into beer (known as chicha blanca), and boiled like rice.

    Chicago Reader 2010

  • Elsewhere, "Adigbedoto" by Gnonnas Pedro glides on reverb-sozzled guitars that seem to owe as much to the Peruvian pop-rock style known as chicha as it does to any Beninese tradition.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • Andrea splits her time between agriculture and making a Peruvian drink called chicha in her house.

    Kiva Loans 2009

  • Â Both the hypocotyl and the leaves are used and can be fermented to produce a weak beer called chicha de maca.

    MyLinkVault Newest Links 2008

Comments

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  • also, a pre-conquest fermented beverage native to South America.

    November 25, 2007

  • Yeah, fermented corn. Wiggy!

    November 25, 2007

  • I had this recently; I can't say it blew me away.

    November 26, 2007

  • "'I see! I see!' impetuously exclaimed Don Pedro, spilling his chicha upon his silvery ruffles."

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 54

    July 25, 2008