chevy
nounverbattested in dialogue
- United States//ˈt͡ʃɛvi//
A hunt or pursuit; a chase.
noun
- 1
A hunt or pursuit; a chase.
- 2
A cry used in hunting.
- 3
The game of prisoners' bars.
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.
verb
- 1
To chase or hunt.
[…] 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.
- 2
To vex or harass with petty attacks.
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.
"They're chevying that poor animal [a dog] again," he said hotly. "It's scandalous." / "Rupert can take care of himself," said the mate calmly, continuing his meal. "I expect, if the truth's known, it's him 's been doin' the chevying."
- 3
To maneuver or secure gradually.
- 4
To scurry.
- 5
Variant of chivvyAlternative spelling of chivvy.
He wos allus willin fur to give me somethink he wos, though Mrs. Sangsby she was allus a chivying on me—like everybody everywheres.
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.
Forms
- plural
- chevies
- past tense
- chevied
- past participle
- chevied
- present participle
- chevying
- third person singular
- chevies