#1  
Old 04-Dec-2006, 11:02
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Default chewing your words

Dear visitors of ESL forum,

I'm trying to figure out the meaning of the saying 'chewing your words'. Is it something like carefully choosing your words, or does it have something to do with not saying everything you think?

Thank you,
Coenraedt
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Old 04-Dec-2006, 23:17
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Default Re: chewing your words

Hello Coenraedt

I haven't heard this phrase before; but to judge by the examples on Google, there are three possible meanings:

1. To reflect carefully upon your words before you speak.
2. To mumble.
3. To accept that something you have said is incorrect (= variant of "eat your words").

Have you found a particular example of the phrase?

All the best,

MrP
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Old 05-Dec-2006, 08:21
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Default Re: chewing your words

I think that the third variant of MrPedantic is the most suitable but this is only an assumption as I haven't found it in any important dictionary!

chewing your words=eat your words
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Old 05-Dec-2006, 18:42
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Default Re: chewing your words

Quote:
Originally Posted by Coenraedt View Post
Dear visitors of ESL forum,

I'm trying to figure out the meaning of the saying 'chewing your words'. Is it something like carefully choosing your words, or does it have something to do with not saying everything you think?

Thank you,
Coenraedt

I did wonder if this phrase was in fact "chewing over your words" - considering what you have said carefully.
  #5  
Old 06-Dec-2006, 04:32
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Default Re: chewing your words

My guess is MrP's #2 - to pronounce indistictly.
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Old 06-Dec-2006, 11:43
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Default Re: chewing your words

I'd guess at MrP's #3 - but not just 'eating your words'; finding it difficult to do. Talking indistinctly, though (on the analogy of 'swallowing your words' - which is an idiom), is quite possible.

b
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Old 07-Dec-2006, 21:44
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Default Re: chewing your words

I think it may mean you want to say something, maybe something impolite, and you are holding your tongue.
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Old 08-Dec-2006, 09:30
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Default Re: chewing your words

Quote:
Originally Posted by paux View Post
I think it may mean you want to say something, maybe something impolite, and you are holding your tongue.
There is already an expression for that - 'to bite your tongue' [it doesn't apply to your whole context specifically, but just to the situation of wanting to say something and not saying it].

When he said that, I had to bite my tongue. He's such a hypocrite.

b
  #9  
Old 15-Dec-2006, 18:50
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Default Re: chewing your words

Dear MrP, Mad-ox, Humble, Anglika, BobK en Paux,

I found out that the frase was actuallly 'chew upon your words'. The context is: a conversation between two women, one of them is about to tell a painful story of the past "And yet it came . . . ", but then she suddenly stops. The second woman asks: "What came? . . . Why do you chew upon your words? . . . What came?."
Given this context I think I'll go for MrP's first variant and paux.
Thank you all very much for your replies!

Kind regards,
Coenraedt
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