English

Proper noun

Chuck ‎(plural Chucks)

1. A form of the male given name Charles, of mostly American usage.
2. (Canada, slang) The city of Edmonton (so named because of the large Ukrainian population; -chuk (-чук) is common suffix in Ukrainian surnames).

Noun

Chuck ‎(plural Chucks)

1. (chiefly plural) a Chuck Taylor shoe.

English

A chuck (device to hold an object in place)

Noun

chuck ‎(plural chucks)

1. (cooking) Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other animal.
   • 1975, Thomas Fabbricante, William J. Sultan, Practical Meat Cutting and Merchandising: Beef, page 141,

     Arm chucks represent approximately 54% of the beef forequarters.

   • 2001, Bruce Aidells, Denis Kelly, The Complete Meat Cookbook: A Juicy and Authoritative Guide, page 190:

     Often, pieces of the chuck are sold boneless as flat chunks of meat or rolled and tied.

   • 2006, North American Meat Processors Association, The Meat Buyers Guide: Beef, Lamb, Veal, Pork, and Poultry, page 113,

     The chucks are that portion of foresaddle remaining after excluding the hotel rack and plate portions of the breast as described in Item No. 306. The veal foreshanks (Item No. 312) and brisket may either be attached or separated and packaged with the chucks.

2. (mechanical engineering) A mechanical device that holds an object firmly in place, for example holding a drill bit in a high-speed rotating drill or grinder.
   • 1824, Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), Transactions, Volume 42, page 88,

     I have had a chuck of this kind made in brass with the cones of iron, but it is cumbrous and expensive, and does not answer so well, owing to the surface of the iron offering less resistance to the work turning within it. This, perhaps, might be remedied by roughing; but I think the chuck is much better in wood, as it can be made by any common turner at a trifling expense, and possesses more strength than can possibly be required.

   • 1912, Fred Herbert Colvin, Frank Arthur Stanley, American Machinist Grinding Book, page 322,

     Iron and steel in contact with magnets retain some of the magnetism, which is sometimes more or less of a nuisance in getting small work off the chucks.

   • 2003, Julie K. Petersen, “chuck”, entry in Fiber Optics Illustrated Dictionary, page 181,

     A fiber optic splicing device may be equipped with V-grooves or chucks to hold the two pieces of fiber optic filament to be spliced. If it has chucks, they are typically either clamping chucks or vacuum chucks.

   • 2008, Ramon Francis Bonaquist, NHCRP Report 614: Refining the Simple Performance Tester for Use in Routine Practice, page 30,

     The first step in preparing a test specimen with the FlexPrep^TM is to secure the gyratory specimen in the chuck of the machine.

Translations

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic dialect term for chicken, imitative of a hen's cluck.

Noun

chuck ‎(plural chucks)

1. (dialect, obsolete) A chicken, a hen.
2. A clucking sound.
   • 1998, Scott Freeman, Jon C. Herron, Evolutionary Analysis, page 604,

     The call always starts with a whine, to which the males add from 0 to 6 chucks. In choice tests, females approach calls that contain chucks in preference to calls that contain no chucks.

3. (slang) A friend or close acquaintance; term of endearment.

   Are you all right, chuck?

   • Shakespeare

     Pray, chuck, come hither.

4. A gentle touch or tap.

   She gave him an affectionate chuck under the chin.

5. (informal) A casual throw.
6. (slang) An act of vomiting.
7. (cricket, informal) A throw, an incorrect bowling action.

Translations

Verb

chuck ‎(third-person singular simple present chucks, present participle chucking, simple past and past participle chucked)

1. To make a clucking sound.
2. To call, as a hen her chickens.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

3. To touch or tap gently.
4. (transitive, informal) To throw, especially in a careless or inaccurate manner.

   Chuck that magazine to me, would you?

5. (transitive, informal) To discard, to throw away.

   This food's gone off - you'd better chuck it.

6. (transitive, informal) To jilt; to dump.

   She's chucked me for another man!

7. (intransitive, slang) To vomit.
8. (intransitive, cricket) To throw; to bowl with an incorrect action.
9. (South Africa, slang, intransitive) To leave; to depart; to bounce.

   Let's chuck.

10. (obsolete) To chuckle; to laugh.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Marston to this entry?)

11. To place in a chuck, or hold by means of a chuck, as in turning; to bore or turn (a hole) in a revolving piece held in a chuck.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From woodchuck.

Alternative forms

• 'chuck

Noun

chuck ‎(plural chucks)

1. Abbreviation of woodchuck.
   • 1976 August, Sylvia Bashline, Woodchucks Are Tablefare Too, Field & Stream, page 50,

     Chucks are plentiful, and most farmers are glad to have the incurable diggers kept at tolerable population levels. […] For some reason, my family didn′t eat ′chucks. Few families in the area did.

Etymology 4

Noun

chuck ‎(plural chucks)

1. (Scotland) A small pebble.

Related terms

• chucks (game played with pebbles)

Synonyms

• chuckstone, chuckiestone

Chinook Jargon

Etymology

From Nootka č̕̕aʔak.

Noun

chuck

1. water

Derived terms

• tumchuck
• saltchuck