[app. originally the same as CHOCK, q.v. Chunk appears to be another variant.]
1. A lump; a large awkward-shaped piece of wood for burning, a CHOCK; also of bread, meat, and the like, a CHUNK. Chiefly dial.
1674. Ray, S. & E. Country Wds., 61. Chuck, a great Chip, Suss.; in other Countreys they call it a chunk.
1736. Pegge, Kenticisms (E. D. S.), Chuck.… We mean more than a chip, viz. a short thick clubbed piece of wood, for burning.
1876. Gower, Surrey Provinc. (E. D. S.), Chucks, large chips of wood. Called ‘chats’ in the Cotswold dialect.
1881. R. Buchanan, God & the Man, I. 20. Chucks of home-made cake.
1887. Parish & Shaw, Kentish Dial., Chuck, a chip; a chunk; a short, thick clubbed piece of wood; a good thick piece of bread and cheese.
2. See quot.
1881. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Chuck, a cut of beef extending from the horns to the ribs, including the shoulder-piece.
1884. G. Pomeroy Keese, Harper’s Mag., July, 299/1. ‘Extra mess’ is composed of chucks, plates, rumps, and flanks.
1886. Illustr. Lond. News, 9 Oct., 370/3. Chuck-steak, In the Midland Counties, three ribs of beef nearest to the neck, cut straight down the fore-quarter to about half way through the shoulder blade.
3. A boat-chock; = CHOCK sb. 3.
1789. O. Equiano, Life (1790), 258. Two boats were washed from the booms, and the long-boat from the chucks.
4. A contrivance for holding work in a lathe, screwing machine, or drilling machine, while being operated upon: an instrument screwed into the nose of the mandrel of a lathe by which the work is held, while being turned. Formerly CHOCK.
1703–94. [See CHOCK].
1807. O. Gregory, Mech., II. 472. On the end of the spindle … is screwed occasionally a universal Chuck for holding any kind of work which is to be turned.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 60. The work … is fastened to a wooden chuck by cement, or by glue, or screwed into it.
1879. Holtzapffel, Turning, IV. 185. Lathe chucks may … be divided into two principal groups. Ibid., IV. 196. Motion is transmitted by the contact of an arm or pin, the driver, on the chuck.
Hence chuck lathe.
1888. Eng. Mech., XLVII. 341. A great quantity of articles are made in the chuck lathe by a scraping process.
