chivvy
/ˈt͡ʃɪvi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.17 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Odd's wouns! it was a proper hunt. Away went my gentlemen, whooping like madmen, with their coat skirts flapping in the breeze, chivying on the dogs and having a rare morning's sport."
- "Some customers could now be relied upon to send in their orders regularly and, apart from having to chivy those who had fallen behind with their payments, this allowed travellers to concentrate their energies on securing new customers and on recovering those who had been lost to competitors."
- "He headed for home, walking a little faster now, as if chivied along by some old cold wind that didn't quite reach the sunlit world."
- "[H]e would chivvy us into position, prodding us gently but forcefully with his stick."
- "For 11 years now he [Tony Blair] has only one approach – to lead from the front and then to confront, challenge, and chivvy the Labour Party into backing him."
- "We don't have time to respond to emails or any attempts to chivvy us up – sorry."
Etymology
From chivy, chevy (“to chase; to race, scamper”), from chivy, chevy (“a chase, hunt, pursuit”), probably 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.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈt͡ʃɪvi/
- British English: /ˈt͡ʃɪvi/
Usage
- British usage
- Transitive verb