chevy
/ˈt͡ʃɛvi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.53 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The sergeants-major were always on the watch to report us if we went out of bounds. […] The moment we saw the sergeant-major, off we scampered over hedge, ditch, bog, and ploughed land, leaving him to catch or identify us if he could! […] Of all the serjeants-major, Howe, of the C company, ran the swiftest. Howe enjoyed these chivies. He frequently omitted to report us if we gave him a good breathing."
- "[…] John, before taking his departure, had left the stable door and the front gate open, and that Tartar [a horse], having no halter on, had quietly walked out into the high road, and had been chevied up and down by the boys for the last quarter of an hour."
- "Hostler Jack chevies the Pardoner, who drops his pan, […]"
- "[I]t seemed rather a piquant thing to us to chevy him about the playground and hit him over the shins with a wicket."
- "St. John remains in the outer room, looks at the clock, […] chivies the tabby cat; counts the flitches of bacon hanging from the rafters; […]"
- "So when I was done, and the fishing was as good as the start, I cut a long "staddle," with a bush at the top, and I just went for that school of trout. I chevied, harried and scattered them, up stream and down, until I could not see a fish."
Etymology
The noun is probably derived from the title of The Ballad of Chevy Chase, first published in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549); the ballad is about a hunt taking place on a chase (“large country estate where game may be hunted”) in the Cheviot Hills between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, and is thought to allude to the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. The verb is derived from the noun.
Word Breakdown
- Suffix: y
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈt͡ʃɛvi/
- British English: /ˈt͡ʃɛvi/