chew the fat

/ʧu ðə fæt/

Other forms: chewing the fat; chews the fat

When you chew the fat with your friends, you sit around chatting and gossiping with them.

Nothing too important gets discussed when you chew the fat — it's most often a light, social kind of talking. The expression may be related to "chew the cud," which means to talk aimlessly, ruminating over the same subject in a casual way, like a cow chewing its cud. It also seems that chew the fat evolved from an original 19th-century British meaning, "to grumble, grouse, or complain."

Definitions of chew the fat

1. verb

   talk socially without exchanging too much information
   synonyms: chaffer, chat, chatter, chit-chat, chitchat, claver, confab, confabulate, gossip, jaw, natter, shoot the breeze, visit

   types:

   jawbone, schmoose, schmooze, shmoose, shmooze

   talk idly or casually and in a friendly way

   type of:

   converse, discourse

   carry on a conversation