▪ I. chavel
a typical ME. form of the word now written jowl, jaw-blade, cheek.
▪ II. † chavel, v.
(ˈtʃævəl)
Forms: 3 cheofle, chefle, cheuele, chavle, 4 chaule, 7 chavell.
[f. chavel, jowl, cheek.]
† 1. intr. To wag the jaws; to chatter, talk idly. Obs.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 70 Heo grint greot þe cheofleð. Ibid. 128 Gelstreð, ase þe uox deð..& chefleð of idel. a 1307 Pol. Songs (1839) 240 To chaule ne to chyde. |
2. trans. To mump or mumble (food). Also absol. and fig.
| 1610 Markham Masterp. i. xii. 34 He doth, as it were, chauell or chaw a little hay. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal x, Disarm'd of teeth, this chavells with his gums. 1796 Marshall, E. Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Chavvle, to chew imperfectly. 1855 Whitby Gloss., Chavvle, to chew imperfectly, to mumble like a toothless person. 1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Manley, Linc., Chavle, to chew badly. ‘That herse chavles strangely, he wants his teeth filin'.’ 1911 D. H. Lawrence White Peacock iii. vii. §6 The bracken lay sere under the trees, broken and chavelled by the restless wild winds of the long winter. 1916 ― Amores 114 Lives which sorrows like mischievous dark mice chavel To nought, diminishing each star's glitter. |
Hence ˈchaveling vbl. n., chattering, ‘jawing’.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 100 Ved þine eien mid totunge, & tine tunge mid cheuelunge. a 1250 Owl & Night. 284 Mid chavling and mid chatere. Ibid. 296. |