/ˈt͡ʃɛvi/
OriginThe 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.
- countableA hunt or pursuit; a chase.
“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”
- countableA cry used in hunting.
- uncountableThe game of prisoners' bars.
- informalA vehicle of this make.
“I saw a late-model Chevy pull around back. That would have been around 10 PM.”
“Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry […]”
- transitiveTo 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”
“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.”
- transitiveTo 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”
“"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”
- transitiveTo maneuver or secure gradually.
- intransitiveTo scurry.
- abbreviation, alt-of, clippingClipping of Chevrolet, a brand of car produced by General Motors.
“Chevy has introduced a new model for 1964: the Malibu. See your dealer today!”
- A unisex given name
Formschevies(plural) · chivy(alternative) · chivey(alternative) · chevies(present, singular, third-person) · chevying(participle, present) · chevied(participle, past) · chevied(past) · Chevie(alternative) · Chevvie(alternative) · Chevvy(alternative) · Chevies(plural)