chuck n.3
1. the act of eating, a mealtime.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Harper’s Mag. Feb. 325/ 1: [I] finished chuck on twelve o’clock [DA]. | |
| Told in Hills 302: ‘Past chuck?’ On being informed that the midday meal had been ended two hours before. | |
| Arizona Nights 95: When the last man had returned from chuck. | |
 | Century Mag. (N.Y.) Oct. 358/2: We’ve just finished chuck, but there’s Java on the fire, dip in [DA]. |
2. food; thus chuck box.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘The Werry last of Dustmen!’ in Sam Weller’s Favorite Song Book 7: Ve don’t vant bread and vater— / For me and chuck have always stuck, / Together like bricks and mortar! / It’s all U.P. &c. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 7/1: Half sobered occupants, who were about leaving the room for their morning’s ‘chuck’ below stairs. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 4: On the seat, much to my surprise, were two large slices of bread [...] what in prison slang is called his ‘toke’ or ‘chuck’. | |
| letter 28 Sept. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 13: Bread and milk is about the only procurable ‘chuck’. | |
| Leicester Chron. 5 July 12/4: You’ll be glad to accept a bit of dry chuck. | |
| Texas Cow Boy (1950) 40: I used to get my chuck from the cook. | |
| Ten Years A Cowboy 57: Better eat our chuck while we can get it. | |
| Sun (NY) 21 May 28/1: ‘Dat guy don’t haf to layover at any town t’git a fresh supply uv chuck. He kin go widout grub er drink for a week’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Aus. Sl. Dict. 17: Chuck, something to eat. | |
| ‘Great Aus. Slanguage’ in Baker Aus. Lang. (1945) 117: And his food is called his tucker / Or his panem or his chuck. | |
| ‘Dougherty’s Eye-Opener’ in Voice of the City (1915) 35: You can have swell chuck tonight if you want it. | |
| ‘Getting into Society’ Variety Stage Eng. Plays 🌐 I can hit up the swell beaneries and assimulate me chuck the same as any other kid-glove boob. | |
| ‘Our Theatrical Boarding House’ in L.A. Herald 10 Dec. 10/5: ‘Quit now, genlmun! The seckond table's in the hall waitin’ to git their chuck’. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 22 Apr. 3/2: If a bloke out in Australia / Do find as he hungry are, / He can go and get some chuck, Sir, Round at any Near and Far . | |
| ‘Omaha Slim’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 109: T’ree bucks a day an’ chuck an’ dere’s plenny o’ work. | |
| Cowboy and His Interpreters 13: About two hours before dawn the cook would shout out ‘Chuck!’ and the boss [...] might yell, ‘Breakfast, boys! Damn you, get up!’. | |
| They Drive by Night 23: Go into a decent café and have a proper cup of tea and get the taste of stir chuck washed out of you. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Entry E (1961) 19: ‘I thought all you cowboys called it chow, or chuck.’ [...] ‘Chow’s for soldiers. Chuck’s for a wagon, on the trail.’. | |
| ‘Old Zebra Dun’ in Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 80: We opened up the chuck box and bade him help himself. / He took a plate of beefsteak, some biscuits and some beans. | |
| (con. 1920s) Monkey Off My Back (1972) 40: I was put to serving mainline ‘chuck’ in the mess hall. | |
| Eng. Creek 236: He [...] laid his hand on the chuckbox. | |
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 chuck v. ‘bread and butter’ At boarding school, at morning break, bread & butter was laid out to eat. This was referred to as ‘Chuck’. A prefect would often punish a junior by asking him to ‘get chuck ’ for him at break. |
3. in institutional (prison, milit., UK public school) use, bread.
| Lloyd’s Newspaper 6 Oct. n.p.: Inquest on murder of Rev. Mr. Hollest [...] the prisoner [...] had tried hard to get some chuck out of him, but had failed [F&H]. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 4: On the seat, much to my surprise, were two large slices of bread [...] what in prison slang is called [...] ‘toke’ or ‘chuck’. | |
| N.Y. Herald 1 Apr. 9/6: When a very hard looking man said he wanted ‘boot leg and chuck’ [...] the [waiter? – copy illegible] turned on his heel and returned in about two-minutes with a cup of coffee and a hunk of bread. | |
| Birmingham Dly Post 31 Mar. 3/4: [I]t was found that at those services where no ‘chuck’ (bread) was distributed there were no tramps. | |
| Lingo of No Man’s Land 21: CHAW or CHUCK Bread, as distinguished from ‘hard-tack’ or ship's biscuits. | |
| Public School Slang 23: Bread [...] chuck [...] perhaps akin to chock, chunk. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 56: If the chuck’s not here in fifteen minutes, we’ll start bashing our way out and go hungry to the border. |
In compounds
(US drugs) the increase in appetite that accompanies withdrawal from narcotics or alcohol.
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 88/2: chuck habit [...] The enormous appetite which the addict develops under the cold turkey system. He eats ravenously for several days or even weeks. | |
| Amer. Thes. Sl. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| (con. 1940s) Monkey Off My Back (1972) 57: After going through the torment of withdrawal, I was hit by ‘the chuck habit’ — a desire for food. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 53: [The] ‘chuck habit’, [...] the alcoholic’s and the narcotics addict’s ravenous appertite that follows the halting of addiction. |
1. (US Und.) a craving for food.
| You Can’t Win (2000) 42: Several new-looking prisoners walked about [...] They were ‘fresh fish,’ new arrivals, who had not yet acquired the ‘chuck horrors,’ that awful animal craving for food that comes after missing half a dozen meals. | |
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
| , | | DAS. |
2. (US drugs) the craving for food or, paradoxically, the obsessive loathing of food that accompanies one’s withdrawal from heroin.
| ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 391: The chuck horrors is an organic condition of the drug-addict during the first few days of incarceration. | |
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 119/2: chuck horrors. The enormous appetite which the addict develops under the cold turkey system. He eats ravenously for several days or even weeks. | |
| Man with the Golden Arm 59: Back on the street he’d gotten the chuck horrors: for two full days he’d eaten candy bars, sweet rolls and strawberry malteds. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore 29: Chuck horrors – The marked increase in appetite observed in some addicts during the period of treatment by total abstinence. | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 170: Bent over the way he was, he had a silhouette like [...] a dog with the chuck horrors. |
(US tramp) a restaurant; also used for the canteen in a mine or mill.
| Wyoming (1908) 104: Conversation at the bunkhouse and the chucktent sometimes circled around the young women at the house. | |
| DN V 23: Chuck house, n. A boarding house, in connection with a mine or mill. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 51: Chuck House. – A mine or mill eating-house. A restaurant. | |
| World’s Toughest Prison 794: chuck house – An eating house or restaurant. |
(US) a hotel.
| Daily Trib. (Bismarck, N.D.) 23 Oct. 4/1: A hotel is a ‘chuck mill’ or ‘hashery.’. |
1. a buffet.
| Bucky O’Connor (1910) 76: [on a train] The nigger just gave the first call for the chuck-wagon. | |
| cited in DAS (1975) 105/1: ‘In Vegas you scoff either downtown at the Golden Nugget [...] or else you eat chuck wagon on the strip.’. | |
| Flathead Courier (Polson MT) Vacation Guide Summer sec B 1/5: [advert] Chuck Wagon Buffet Dinners served every Sunday afternoon. Seafood Chuck Wagon every Friday evening [DARE]. |
2. a small restaurant or café.
| WELS. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| Flesh Peddlers (1964) 245: Have breakfast at the chuck wagon at the Ali Baba. |
(US) bacon.
| Western Words (1968) 66/1: chuck wagon chicken A cowboy’s name for fried bacon. | |
| Great Bend Trib. (KS) 2 July 3/2: Then there’s bacon (fried chicken, chuck wagon chicken, or Kansas City fish). |
In phrases
(US) to dine.
| Wolfville 82: The O.K. House, where them Britons has been wrastlin’ their chuck. |