chirk (up) v.
1. (US) to cheer up.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | High Life in N.Y. II 113: I’ve got something there that’ll make your nose tingle, and chirk you right up. | |
| Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 27: Dew go, Mr. Crane, it’ll chirk you up and dew you good to go out into society. | |
 | My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet’s 102: Chirk up, Simon Slimpsey, be a man. | |
| Happy Dodd Ch. xii: Ef there’as a mortal thing I can do to [...] chirk ye up, I want to do it right off. | |
| Watchman & Southron (Sumter, SC) 20 Jan. 1/2: I biled up some herb tea, and sort of cossetted her [...] until she chirked up. | |
| Wkly Messenger (St Martinsville, LA) 5 Sept. 2/3: The little girl chirked up wonderfully for a time. | |
| Advocate (Topeka, KS) 30 Dec. 15/1: Ye jest ought to see how chirked up the jedge is! | |
| Shorty McCabe 16: But you couldn’t chirk him up that way. He’d believed in that leaky heart of his for years. [Ibid.] 122: Can’t we do some thing to chirk him up a bit? | |
| Knocking the Neighbors 133: [They] had a Good Cry, after which they chirked up and paid a lot of Attention to a well-preserved Bachelor. | |
| Somewhere in Red Gap 164: ‘Perhaps under the tables,’ says young Angus, chirking up still more. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Argus (Melbourne) 23 June 9/4: In the course of a column [...] you happen on ‘chirked-up’. |
2. (US) to pay attention, to animate oneself.
| Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 18 Oct. 57/5: How often did those sleepy-eyed stewards chirk up and take notice. |