chow

noun

1. (slang, uncountable, usually)Food, especially snacks.

   “I'm going to pick up some chow for dinner.”

   “Donlon says, "Well, we're rich and we got beaucoup beer and beaucoup chow. Now all we need is the Bob Hope show."”

2. (Trinidad-and-Tobago, uncountable, usually)Unripe, or partially ripened, fruit seasoned and served as a dish, e.g. pineapple chow or mango chow.
3. (uncountable, usually)A Chow Chow.

   “‘I'd try and grapple with him myself, only I've got my chow in my room, you know, and he goes for pigs wherever he finds them.’”

   “While we were talking, one of the chows, the rusty one, had come over to me and I was absently petting him.”

4. (Australia, archaic, slang, uncountable, usually)A Chinese person.

   “These were the creatures Nawnim had been amazed to see about him on the day of his arrival. When he inquired about them, Anna told him they were Japs an' Chows.”

   “‘Now look here old man if you should ever bump into an interesting Chow from over the river – one with access, follow me? – just you remember High Haven!’”

5. A prefecture or district of the second rank in China, or the chief city of such a district.
6. A run of three consecutive tiles of the same suit.
7. A call for forming such a run using a discarded tile.
8. A Chow Chow (Chinese breed of dog).

   “Colin was a Chow; an interesting Chinese breed that looks a bit like a Pomeranian on steroids[.]”

verb

1. (South-Africa, slang)To eat.
2. To call a discarded tile to produce a chow.

   “[…] while the adversary on his right will repeatedly bury in the discard the very tiles he wishes to chow but can't.”

name

1. A surname from Cantonese.
2. (alt-of, alternative, obsolete)Alternative form of Zhou (“dynasty, realm, and era”).