chuck

Etymology 1

Variant of chock.

noun

1. (cooking) Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other animal.
   Arm chucks represent approximately 54% of the beef forequarters. 1975, Thomas Fabbricante, William J. Sultan, Practical Meat Cutting and Merchandising: Beef, page 141
   Often, pieces of the chuck are sold boneless as flat chunks of meat or rolled and tied. 2001, Bruce Aidells, Denis Kelly, The Complete Meat Cookbook: A Juicy and Authoritative Guide, page 190
   The chucks are that portion of foresaddle remaining after excluding the hotel rack and plate portions of the breast as described in Item No. 306. The veal foreshanks (Item No. 312) and brisket may either be attached or separated and packaged with the chucks. 2006, North American Meat Processors Association, The Meat Buyers Guide: Beef, Lamb, Veal, Pork, and Poultry, page 113
2. (US, slang, dated) Food.
   “Hambone, how's for chuck?” Hambone removed pipe from mouth, slowly. “Wal, I reckon I still got a few whistleberries left. Some sonofabitch stew mabbe. A few shot biscuits.” 1951, Frederick Feikema Manfred, Riders of Judgment, Second, published 2014
3. (mechanical engineering) A mechanical device that holds an object firmly in place, for example holding a drill bit in a high-speed rotating drill or grinder.
   1824, Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), Transactions, Volume 42, page 88, I have had a chuck of this kind made in brass with the cones of iron, but it is cumbrous and expensive, and does not answer so well, owing to the surface of the iron offering less resistance to the work turning within it. This, perhaps, might be remedied by roughing; but I think the chuck is much better in wood, as it can be made by any common turner at a trifling expense, and possesses more strength than can possibly be required.
   Iron and steel in contact with magnets retain some of the magnetism, which is sometimes more or less of a nuisance in getting small work off the chucks. 1912, Fred Herbert Colvin, Frank Arthur Stanley, American Machinist Grinding Book, page 322
   2003, Julie K. Petersen, “chuck”, entry in Fiber Optics Illustrated Dictionary, page 181, A fiber optic splicing device may be equipped with V-grooves or chucks to hold the two pieces of fiber optic filament to be spliced. If it has chucks, they are typically either clamping chucks or vacuum chucks.
   The first step in preparing a test specimen with the FlexPrepᵀᴹ is to secure the gyratory specimen in the chuck of the machine. 2008, Ramon Francis Bonaquist, NHCRP Report 614: Refining the Simple Performance Tester for Use in Routine Practice, page 30

verb

1. To place in a chuck, or hold by means of a chuck, as in turning.
2. To bore or turn (a hole) in a revolving piece held in a chuck.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic dialect term for chicken, imitative of a hen's cluck.

noun

1. (dialect, obsolete) A chicken, a hen.
2. A clucking sound.
   The call always starts with a whine, to which the males add from 0 to 6 chucks. In choice tests, females approach calls that contain chucks in preference to calls that contain no chucks. 1998, Scott Freeman, Jon C. Herron, Evolutionary Analysis, page 604
3. (slang) A friend or close acquaintance; term of endearment.
   Are you all right, chuck?

verb

1. To make a clucking sound.
2. To call, as a hen her chickens.
3. (obsolete) To chuckle; to laugh.
   Who would not chuck to see such pleasing sport. To see such troupes of gallants still resort unto Cornutos shop. 1598, John Marston, “Satyre IV”, in The Metamorphosis of Pigmalions Image, and Certaine Satyres (poem)

Etymology 3

Probably from Old French chuquer, later choquer (“to knock, hit”).

noun

1. A gentle touch or tap.
   She gave him an affectionate chuck under the chin.
2. (informal) A casual throw.
3. (cricket, informal) A throw, an incorrect bowling action.
4. (slang) An act or instance of vomiting.
5. (music) On rhythm guitar or mandolin etc., the muting of a chord by lifting the fretting fingers immediately after strumming, producing a percussive effect.

verb

1. To touch or tap gently.
   [Y]ou look now as you did before we were married—when you used to walk with me under the Elms, and tell me stories of what a Gallant you were in your youth—and chuck me under the chin you would—and ask me if I thought I could love an old Fellow who would deny me nothing—didn't you? 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, III.ii
2. (transitive, informal) To throw, especially in a careless or inaccurate manner.
   Chuck that magazine to me, would you?
3. (intransitive, cricket) To throw; to bowl with an incorrect action.
4. (transitive, informal) To discard, to throw away.
   This food's gone off - you'd better chuck it.
   When Dangerfield put the little roll in his hand, Irons looked suspicious and frightened, and balanced it in his palm, as if he had thoughts of chucking it from him, as though it were literally a satanic douceur. But it is hard to part with money, and Irons, though he still looked cowed and unhappy, put the money into his breeches' pocket, and he made a queer bow […] 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
5. (transitive, informal) To jilt; to dump.
   She's chucked me for another man!
6. (transitive, informal, dated) To give up; to stop doing; to quit.
7. (intransitive, slang) To vomit.
8. (South Africa, slang, intransitive) To leave; to depart; to bounce.
   Let's chuck.
9. (music) On rhythm guitar or mandolin etc.: to mute a chord by lifting the fretting fingers immediately after strumming, producing a percussive effect.

Etymology 4

From woodchuck.

noun

1. Abbreviation of woodchuck.
   1976 August, Sylvia Bashline, Woodchucks Are Tablefare Too, Field & Stream, page 50, Chucks are plentiful, and most farmers are glad to have the incurable diggers kept at tolerable population levels. […] For some reason, my family didn′t eat ′chucks. Few families in the area did.

Etymology 5

noun

1. (Scotland) A small pebble.
2. (Scotland, obsolete, slang, in the plural) Money.