rechew

English

Etymology

From re- +‎ chew.

Verb

rechew (third-person singular simple present rechews, present participle rechewing, simple past and past participle rechewed)

1. To chew again.
   • 1609, John Davies, The Holy Roode‎^[1], London: N. Butter:

     Nor could He (as some Beasts rechew their meat,
     To cause the same the better to disgest)
     Rechew this Bread,

   • 1713, Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, “A Nocturnal Reverie”, in Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions‎^[2], London: J.B, page 292:

     When nibbling Sheep at large pursue their Food,
     And unmolested Kine rechew the Cud;

   • 1832, John Richardson, chapter 12, in Wacousta‎^[3], volume 2, London: T. Cadell, page 316:

     The sailor now drew from the receptacle just named a dirty piece of folded paper, deeply impregnated with the perfume of stale and oft rechewed quids of coarse tobacco;

   • 1942, Emily Carr, “Singing”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

     The harder Small sang, the harder the cow chewed and the faster she twiddled her ears around as if stirring the song into the food to be rechewed in cud along with her breakfast.

2. (figuratively) To go over or ponder again.
   • 1941, Robert A. Heinlein, “They”, in Rod Serling’s Other Worlds‎^[4], New York: Bantam, published 1978, page 17:

     His mind insisted on rechewing its doubts, rather than engage in constructive thought.

   • 1989, Claire Nicolas White, chapter 17, in Fragments of Stained Glass‎^[5], San Francisco: Mercury House, page 168:

     […] his disease is mostly impatience with contemporary trends in art and literature that have passed him by. And so he rechews the classics, “which those ignorant fellows never bothered to read,” […]

   • 2012, Karen Thompson Walker, chapter 3, in The Age of Miracles‎^[6], New York: Random House, page 14:

     By noon on that first day, the networks had run out of new information. Drained of every fresh fact, they went right on reporting anyway, chewing and rechewing the same small chunks of news.

Synonyms

• remasticate

Translations

chew again

• Esperanto: remaĉi
• French: remâcher (fr)
• Irish: athchogain
• Italian: rimasticare (it)

go over again

• French: remâcher (fr)
• Italian: rimasticare (it)

See also

• cud
• ruminate

Anagrams

• chewer, chewre