chivvy

English

WOTD – 7 April 2019

Etymology

From chivy, chevy (“to chase; to race, scamper”), from chivy, chevy (“a chase, hunt, pursuit”), probably from the title of The Ballad of Chevy Chase, first published in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549); the ballad is about a hunt taking place on a chase (“large country estate where game may be hunted”) in the Cheviot Hills between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, and is thought to allude to the Battle of Otterburn in 1388.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɪvi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: chiv‧vy

Verb

chivvy (third-person singular simple present chivvies, present participle chivvying, simple past and past participle chivvied)

1. (transitive, British) To coerce or hurry along, as by persistent request. [from late 18th c.]
   • 1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Of the Swordsman with the Brown Jacket”, in Micah Clarke: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co […], →OCLC, page 316:

     Odd's wouns! it was a proper hunt. Away went my gentlemen, whooping like madmen, with their coat skirts flapping in the breeze, chivying on the dogs and having a rare morning's sport.

   • 1973, B. W. E. Alford, “A New Generation and a New Firm”, in W. D. & H. O. Wills and the Development of the UK Tobacco Industry, 1786–1965, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. […], →ISBN; reprinted as Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2006, →ISBN, page 55:

     Some customers could now be relied upon to send in their orders regularly and, apart from having to chivy those who had fallen behind with their payments, this allowed travellers to concentrate their energies on securing new customers and on recovering those who had been lost to competitors.

   • 1981 November, Gardner Dozois, Jack C[arroll] Haldeman II, “Executive Clemency”, in Omni, New York, N.Y.: Omni Publications International; republished as Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, October 1992, →ISBN, page 35:

     He headed for home, walking a little faster now, as if chivied along by some old cold wind that didn't quite reach the sunlit world.

   • 2005 November 10, Nick Robinson, “Robinson’s View: Blair’s Defeat”, in BBC News‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 June 2017:

     For 11 years now he [Tony Blair] has only one approach – to lead from the front and then to confront, challenge, and chivvy the Labour Party into backing him.

   • 2007 April 24, “The Albert Sessions”, in BBC‎^[2], archived from the original on 29 May 2006:

     We don't have time to respond to emails or any attempts to chivvy us up – sorry.

   • 2014 August, Holly McQueen, chapter 16, in Charlie Glass’s Slippers: A Very Modern Fairy Tale, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Atria Paperback, →ISBN, page 267:

     She's helpful and rude in equal measure as she chivvies me into insisting that Heather include a particular pair of gold metallic wedges that I really think is representative of Dad's style […]

2. (transitive, British) To subject to harassment or verbal abuse.
   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Stop Him!”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 447:

     He wos allus willin fur to give me somethink he wos, though Mrs. Sangsby she was allus a chivying on me—like everybody everywheres.

   • 1883, “Nessmuk” [pseudonym; George Washington Sears], Charles F. Orvis and A. Nelson Cheney, compilers, “Trout: Meeting Them on the ‘June Rise’”, in Fishing with the Fly: Sketches by Lovers of the Art, with Illustrations of Standard Flies, Manchester, Vt.: C. F. Orvis, →OCLC, page 167:

     So when I was done, and the fishing was as good as the start, I cut a long "staddle," with a bush at the top, and I just went for that school of trout. I chevied, harried and scattered them, up stream and down, until I could not see a fish.

   • 1898, W[illiam] W[ymark] Jacobs, “Pickled Herring”, in Sea Urchins, London: Lawrence and Bullen, Ltd. […], →OCLC, page 160:

     "They're chevying that poor animal [a dog] again," he said hotly. "It's scandalous." / "Rupert can take care of himself," said the mate calmly, continuing his meal. "I expect, if the truth's known, it's him 's been doin' the chevying."

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     Toby played the lightly chivvied ‘husband’ very sweetly, and Sophie claimed him in the childish ways of someone experimenting with her power, with little exasperations and innuendos.

3. (transitive, British) To sneak up on or rapidly approach.
4. (transitive, British) To pursue as in a hunt. [from mid 19th c.]

   Synonyms: chase, hunt

   to chivvy the fox

   • 1855, “Riots in Hyde Park”, in The Annual Register, or A View of the History and Politics of the Year 1855, volume XCVII, London: Printed for F[rancis] & J[ohn] Rivington; [et al.], published 1856, →OCLC, page 107, column 2:

     The police were kept out of sight, and the amusements of the mob consisted chiefly in forming bodies which rushed from one end of the Park to the other, to the great injury of other rioters; or in hunting or "chivvying" any footman or remarkable person who should venture among them; some of these unfortunates were much injured.

   • 1868 January, “Miss Sophy’s Crutch”, in London Society. An Illustrated Magazine of Light and Amusing Literature for the Hours of Relaxation, volume XIII, number LXXIII, London: Office, 217, Piccadilly, W. [printed by William Clowes and Sons, […]], →OCLC, chapter I, page 76, column 1:

     […] John, before taking his departure, had left the stable door and the front gate open, and that Tartar [a horse], having no halter on, had quietly walked out into the high road, and had been chevied up and down by the boys for the last quarter of an hour.

   • 1893 (indicated as 1894), A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Naval Treaty”, in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, Limited, […], →OCLC, page 215:

     [I]t seemed rather a piquant thing to us to chevy him about the playground and hit him over the shins with a wicket.

   • 1927 November 26, Cyril Connolly, “[Review of Ernest Hemingway’s Men without Women]”, in New Statesman, volume 30, London: New Statesman Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 208; republished in Jeffrey Meyers, editor, Ernest Hemingway: The Critical Heritage (Critical Heritage Series)‎^[3], London: Routledge, 1997 (2009 printing), →ISBN:

     With Mr. [Ernest] Hemingway, we at once enter the front line of modern literary warfare. We are face to face with the largest and wildest of the game that Mr. Wyndham Lewis chivvies through the warrens of the Rive Gauche and with the only one of its fauna on whose tail he has tried to place a pinch of commendatory salt, apparently in vain.

   • 1934, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 18, in Burmese Days: A Novel (Project Gutenberg Australia; eBook no. 0200051h.html)‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, published November 2015, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 April 2018:

     He rode slowly towards them with a sulky expression on his face, chivvying the polo-ball with small strokes.

Alternative forms

• chivy, chevy, shivvy

Derived terms

• chivvier

Translations

to coerce — see coerce

to subject to harassment or verbal abuse

• Russian: досажда́ть (ru) (dosaždátʹ)
• Ukrainian: гонити (honyty)

to sneak up on or rapidly approach — see sneak up on

to pursue as in a hunt

• Ukrainian: гнати (hnaty)

Noun

chivvy (plural chivvies)

1. (British) Something that encourages one to act; a goad, a spur.
   • 2003 September 23, “Web Payback for Delayed Commuters”, in BBC News‎^[5], archived from the original on 9 March 2016:

     Although Mr [Paul] Hatcher is not sure how popular the site will be he has designed it to handle up to 10,000 requests an hour. "It's just there to act as a chivvy to London Underground," he said.