Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a drink of spirits, also attrib.

1826		Southern Reporter (Cork) 25 Mar. 4/1: If a raw chaw with your gums don’t agree / [...] putyeen [sic] is the nectar for you, love, an’ me.
1829		Clonmel Herald 13 May 4/3: It was rather a could [sic] moisty kind of day, so he proposed to have a raw chaw first of all.
1837		Morn. Post (London) 29 Dec. 3/2: The publicans and ‘raw chaw’ grocvers (as those are termed who sell drams).
1838		W.N. Glascock Land Sharks and Sea Gulls II 123: I’m blest if I’m fit for work ’thout a raw chaw* [...] *A dram.
1856		Limerick Reporter 7 Mar. 1/4: Took a dandy of negus and a ‘raw chaw’ that day.

2. (W.I.) an uncouth, ill-mannered person.

1941, 1956

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

3. (W.I.) the unvarnished truth.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 43: Raw-chaw 1. the naked truth.