English · Idiom Attested

chew the fat

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To chat idly or generally waste time talking.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Trò chuyện vô ích hoặc lãng phí thời gian nói chuyện

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He made a shortened door, while Selwyn chewed the fat with Stapleton.

And during his flying visit to Belfast, Mr Grade took time out to chew the fat about the old days.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent buôn dưa lê to shoot the breeze; to chew the fat; to gossip Tiếng Việt Near equivalent shoot the breeze To chat idly or casually, without any serious topic of conversation. English · via buôn dưa lê

Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.

Common questions

What does “chew the fat” mean?

To chat idly or generally waste time talking.

Is “chew the fat” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“buôn dưa lê” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.