▪ I. † chawn, n. Obs. or dial.
Also 7 chawne, choane, chone, chaun.
[Identical in meaning with chine n.1, and perh. a deriv. of chine v.1, of which the pa. tense was in OE. cán, ME. chane, chone; but the form-history is by no means clear.]
A gap, cleft, chink, rift, fissure; a chine.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 37 In one place the walls of cities are laid along: in another they be swallowed vp in a deepe and wide chawne. 1609 ― Amm. Marcell. xvii. vii. 89 The earth waxing drie..openeth very great chinkes and wide chawnes. 1611 Cotgr., Fendasse, a cleft, rift, chop, choane. 1627 T. Jackson Chr. Obed. iii. Wks. 1844 XII. 244 An earthquake..made a chaun or rift in the roof of the temple. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 82/1 An Adams Apple [hath] some rifts, chaps, or chones thereon. 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. lii, I was..plagu'd with Chaps, Chawns and Piles at the Fundament. 1799 Rev. F. Leighton (Shrewsbury) MS. Lett. to Rev. J. Boucher 26 Feb. Shropshire word chone, meaning a chap, gap, or cut in the flesh of the fingers, from excessive cold. |
▪ II. † chawn, v. Obs.
Also 6–7 chaune, 7 chawne, choane.
[Like the n. found about 1600, and during the early part of 17th c. The vb. was probably from the n.: cf. chine n.1 and v.1]
Hence chawned, chawning, ppl. adjs.
1. intr. To gape open.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 435 That the threshing floors should be wrought and tempered with oile lees, that they might not chawn & gape. 1610 ― Camden's Brit. i. 512 Arches..now chinking and chawning for age. 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. viii. 19 Salt, bitter, chauning, burnt, parched..grounds. |
2. trans. To cleave or rive asunder; to cause to gape open.
| 1600 Marston Antonio & Mell. i. iii, O thou all-bearing earth..O chaune thy breast, And let me sinke into thee. 1611 Cotgr., Crevasser, to chop, chawne, chap, chinke, riue or cleaue asunder. Ibid. Fendiller, to..chap, choane, open. |
3. trans. = chine v.2
| a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. xxviii. 235 Chawned cod. |
▪ III. chawn
obs. form of khan.