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chug

nounverbnounverbattested in dialogue

  • United States//t͡ʃʌɡ//
  • Australia//t͡ʃɐɡ//
  • //t͡ʃʊɡ//

A dull, fairly quick explosive or percussive sound, as if made by a labouring engine.

noun

  1. 1

    A dull, fairly quick explosive or percussive sound, as if made by a labouring engine.

  2. 2

    A large gulp of drink.

    He drank his beer in three chugs.

  3. 3

    A homemade Cuban boat, built to carry emigrants to the USA, and often abandoned upon arrival.

  4. 4

    A person of Native American descent.

  5. 5

    A palm muted note on a distorted electric guitar.

Etymology

Onomatopoeic, in imitation of a working steam engine. The racial slur sense derives from the stereotype of Native Americans chugging alcohol.

verb

  1. 1

    To make dull explosive sounds.

  2. 2

    To move or travel whilst making such sounds.

    We were chugging along a back road when the engine cut out.

    The inn also offers adventure packages, including ziplining and a truck safari, where a military vehicle chugs up the side of a muddy mountain.

  3. 3

    To move or travel at a steady, although not especially fast, pace.

    Outside, beyond the sun-baked station yard, a rice mill chugged away in the distance, and sweating coolies unloaded bags of rice from creaking bullock carts.

    Before the year was out, the girls were out of school and the foursome's "Tell Him" was chuggin’ up the charts.

    As the escort carriers chug away south, their single 5-inch rear guns are now cleared to open fire as the range closes.

    I kept chugging away on ion, adjusting my path so I'd hit perikron in the B ring with orbital velocity.

  4. 4

    To drink a large amount (especially of beer) in a single action/without breathing; to chugalug. Usually chanted at the person who is drinking.

    Chug! Chug! Chug!

    I can't believe he chugged three beers.

  5. 5

    To function or perform with difficulty, typically due to inadequate resources or performance limitations.

    My game chugs every time too many NPCs are onscreen.

noun

  1. 1

    A dog that is a cross between a pug and a chihuahua.

Etymology

Blend of chihuahua + pug.

verb

  1. 1

    slangTo solicit charitable donations on the street, particularly in a persistent manner.

    I got chugged in the town centre today.

Etymology

Blend of charity + mug (“to violently rob on the street”).

Forms

plural
chugs
past tense
chugged
past participle
chugged
present participle
chugging
third person singular
chugs
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).