"jawing" in the verb sense

1. chew the fat, shoot the breeze, chat, confabulate, confab, chitchat, chit-chat, chatter, chaffer, natter, gossip, jaw, claver, visit

talk socially without exchanging too much information

"the men were sitting in the cafe and shooting the breeze"

2. yack, jaw, yack away, rattle on, yap away

talk incessantly and tiresomely

3. chew, masticate, manducate, jaw

chew (food to bite and grind with the teeth

"He jawed his bubble gum"

"Chew your food and don't swallow it!"

"The cows were masticating the grass"

4. call on the carpet, take to task, rebuke, rag, trounce, lecture, reprimand, jaw, dress down, call down, scold, chide, berate, bawl out, remonstrate, chew out, chew up, have words, lambaste, lambast

censure severely or angrily

"The mother scolded the child for entering a stranger's car"

"The deputy ragged the Prime Minister"

"The customer dressed down the waiter for bringing cold soup"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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