chewing
n. uncountablen. the act of using your teeth to break food into smaller pieces before you swallow it.
n. the process of masticating food with the teeth to facilitate swallowing and digestion.
Loud chewing can be very annoying to other people.
Proper chewing is the first step of digestion because it mixes food with saliva.
The rhythmic chewing of the cattle was the only sound heard across the quiet meadow as the sun began to set.
From Middle English chewynge, chewand, from Old English ċēowende, from Proto-Germanic kewwandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *kewwaną (“to chew”), equivalent to chew + -ing.
From Middle English chewyng, chewynge, from Old English ċīwung, ċȳwung, ċēowung (“chewing”), equivalent to chew + -ing.
Typically used as an uncountable noun to describe the action or the sound of the action.