Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a term of endearment, a sweetheart.

c.1595		Shakespeare Love’s Labour’s Lost V i: The king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation.
1600		Shakespeare Twelfth Night III iv: Why how now, my bawcock! how dost thou, chuck?
1605		Chapman & Jonson Eastward Ho! V i: Try her, good chuck, I warrant thee.
1607		G. Wilkins Miseries of an Enforced Marriage Act V: True, chuck, I am thy haven.
1616		Jonson Devil is an Ass II i: This way, wife. Up to thy gallery, do, chuck.
1629		J. Earle Micro-Cosmographie (1811) 162: A Meer Gull Citizen is one that [...] does nothing without his chuck, that is his wife, with whom he is billing still.
c.1635		W. Cartwright Ordinary I ii: Kiss him, Chuck.
1640		T. Rawlins Rebellion I i: Come hither love, sweet chucke.
1664		Etherege Love In A Tub V iv: Do not tremble, Chuck; I love thy profession too well to harm thee.
1694		D’Urfey Comical Hist. of Don Quixote Pt 2 IV iii: Come along with me, Chuck.
c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) 51: My Chuck! Thou’rt the best Friend I have. [Ibid.] 53: He was her Chuck and Dear.
1723		‘Whipping-Tom’ Democritus III 41: It was my Resolution to acquaint her Husband with his Chuckee’s making his Head look like the horn’d Head of Parnassus.
1753		Foote Taste in Works (1799) I 14: I am puzzled to know which is thine, chuck.
1765		‘The Honey Moon’ Musical Companion 7: My dead and my duck, / My sweetest, my chuck.
1770		Foote Lame Lover in Works (1799) II 65: Why truly, chuck, his retreat was rather precipitate.
1785		M. Lonsdale Spanish Rivals II ii: Yes, chuck!
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Chuck, my chuck; a term of endearment.
1810		‘Pedlar Girl’ Batchelar’s Jovial Fellows Collection of Songs 8: I’ll tie a true lover’s knot with you, my little chuck.
1825		Egan Life of an Actor 52: Mistress Start was enacting in Lady Macbeth, While Manager Start played the Thane; When his ‘chuck’ was alarm’d, as she plann’d Duncan’s death, In the castle of famed Dunsinane.
1834		‘Mrs. Grumbleton’s Two Mouths’ Bang-Up Songster 43: My dearest chuck I feel quite strong.
1841		Comic Almanack Apr. 265: To meet her ‘dear duck,’ / Her ‘love’ and her ‘chuck’.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 13: I’ll see what’s what, my chuck!
1871		Atlanta Constitution 29 Mar. 1/3: To combine Shakespeare and slang – ‘Use lenity, sweet chuck.’.
1904		B.L. Farjeon Amblers 40: For all your pretty face, my dainty chuck, to this complexion must you come.
1931		A. Bennett Teresa of Watling Street 74: ‘Now, my chuck,’ he said, ‘try if you can stand.’.
1976		A. Bleasdale It’s a Madhouse (1986) 131: Put it this way, chuck, I was a prisoner of war.
1977		(con. 1961) J. Rosenthal Spend, Spend, Spend Scene 21: They’ve got none, chuck.
1999		Observer Screen 26 Sept. 24: Give it a whirl, chuck.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 11: I’ve got to ask, chuck, you understand.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 118: ‘Bless you, chuck’.