Also chivvy. [This and the cognate verb are modern; and probably arise out of Chevy chase: see below.]
1. As a hunting cry.
c. 1785. O’Keefe, Hunting Song, ‘Old Towler.’ With a hey, ho, chivy Hark forward, hark forward, tantivy.
18[?]. Shairp, in Knight, S & Friends, 12. Then, with the music of the baying pack, All the old chivalries came floating back, And mingled with the chevy and the chime.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. x. When you are ready, I am … with a Hey Ho Chivey, and likewise with a Hark Forward, Tantivy.
2. A chase, pursuit, hunt.
a. 1824. C. Lofft, Self-formation (1837), I. 174. Running into a hare after a chevy of a full hour.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, v. 44. The man … made a chevy down the south side of Leicester-square, [etc.].
1860. J. C. Atkinson, Playhours, 1. Come out man and warm your blood with a chivy.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 257. A stag-hunt in full chevy, archers and centaurs.
1872. Daily News, 3 Sept. With noisy chevies after the hares.
3. The game of prisoners’ base.
1883. ‘F. Anstey,’ Vice Versâ, v. 93–4. This particular sport, ‘chevy,’ commonly known as ‘prisoners’ base,’… being of a somewhat monotonous nature, and calling for no special skill on the part of the performers.
b. The set of players who are chased in this game.
1859. J. Payn, Foster Brothers, viii. 129. We were great at football; we were a most distinguished ‘chevy.’
4. Chevy Chase: the scene of a famous Border skirmish, celebrated in a well-known ballad; hence, transferred, as in quots.
(Quot. 1665 refers possibly to a song of the name.)
1665. Locke, Letter, in Fox Bourne, Life (1876), I. iii. 113. He that could not … make better music with a chevy-chase over a pot of smooth ale, deserved well to pay the reckoning and go away athirst.
1876. Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Chevy-chase, a running pursuit.
1880. West Cornw. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Chevy-chace, a great bustle or noise. ‘What’s all the Chevy-chace about?’
