Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also chaw the fat, chow the fat, shoot the fat) to converse, to talk something over; thus chew-the-fat n., a garrulous person.

1804		J. Orr ‘To the Potatoe’ in Poems on Various Pubjects 36: The weed we smoke, an’ chow the fat o’.
1885		B. Patterson Life in the Ranks 124: Others indulge in the various diversions of whistling, singing, arguing the point, chewing the rag, or fat.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 162: No need to chew the fat about it.
1912		Leamington Spa Courier 20 Sept. 7/1: There are a great many tramps staying in this district at the present time [...] When we are not worrying the natives we are ‘chewing the fat’ (talking big ) in the ‘kip’ house.
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 112: ‘What’s the sense o’ me tryin’ to chew the fat in French?’ asked Renson, with tears in his voice.
1915		T. Burke Nights in Town 188: Come on, old chew-the-fat, give us a hand.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 293: Jesus, I had to laugh at Pisser Burke taking them off chewing the fat and Bloom with his but don’t you see? and but on the other hand.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 288: The monthly meetings were nothing but ‘bull fests,’ or as one cynical member put it, ‘We wear a gold helmet on our sweaters and chew the fat once a month’.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 113: They all started [...] chewin’ the fat about what kind o’ sport they’d ’ad.
1931		D. Runyon ‘The Old Doll’s House’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 65: He is sitting there [...] chewing the fat with the old doll.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 215: All I do is play solitary and chew the fat with the screws all day.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 76: We chewed the fat a while longer.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 67: The World driver likes to shoot a little fat.
1960		I. Fleming For Your Eyes Only (1962) 175: This ain’t no time for chewing the fat.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 79: Laughed up her sleeve while you argued and chawed the fat.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 366: I’m not gonna stand here, the fuckin blizzard, an chew the fat with yuz.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 114: There was a photo of her on the front page of the Sydney Herald with a black doily in her head, chewing the fat with His Holiness.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 103: It feels perfectly proper to be stood here [...] chewing the fat with Tom Baker.
2000		Guardian Rev. 21 Apr. 17: I was sitting down chewing the fat with this chubby wannabe rapper.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 44: We go intae the Central and start chewing the fat.

2. (Aus.) to talk nonsense.

1891

Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 7 Feb. 3/3: ‘Wot’s that you say? Here! Chuck it, Yer won't get me on that, / I’m wide awake, old chap, you bet, / Don’t chaw your bloomin’ fat.

3. to quarrel.

1895

Mirror of Life 12 Jan. 15/3: Sullivan had an idea that Selby was ‘sharping’ him, and they were ‘chewing the fat’ (quarrelling) for some time.

4. to complain; to be resentful, argumentative.

1896		‘Army Slang’ in Regiment 11 Apr. 31/2: A private who is argumentative [...] is a ‘barrack room lawyer’ [...] and is said to ‘chew the fat’ or ‘the rag’.
1917		Van Loan ‘Playing Even with Obadiah’ in Old Man Curry 59: Aw, what’s the good of chewing the fat? [...] Let’s not have any arguments, boys.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 49: What are you chewing the fat about? [...] Can’t you take an ordinary telling-off without starting to grouse about it?
1930		(con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 111: Still no sense in chewing the fat about something that had never even happened.
1960		E. North Nobody Stops Me 185: I caught my thoughts up. That sort of fat made bad chewing.