Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • The largest city of Illinois, in the northeast part of the state on Lake Michigan. Located at the mouth of the Chicago River, the first link in the Illinois Waterway, it developed into a major port in the 1800s and became the commercial center of the Midwest. Chicago was nearly destroyed by a disastrous fire in 1871.
  • Judy,American artist best known for The Dinner Party (1979), a ceramic and needlepoint project depicting the social history of women in the Western world.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In card-playing and other games, to ‘skunk’ or ‘whitewash’ (an opposing side); that is, to prevent it from scoring any runs or points.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A large city located on Lake Michigan in northeastern Illinois, USA.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun largest city in Illinois; a bustling Great Lakes port that extends 26 miles along the southwestern shoreline of Lake Michigan
  • noun a gambling card game in which chips are placed on the ace and king and queen and jack of separate suits (taken from a separate deck); a player plays the lowest card of a suit in his hand and successively higher cards are played until the sequence stops; the player who plays a card matching one in the layout wins all the chips on that card

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Miami or Potawatomi shikaakwa ("wild onion, leek” or “striped skunk"), via the French transcription Checagou. Compare Ojibwe zhigaagawanzh, zhigaagawinzh ("onion, leek"), zhigaag ("striped skunk").

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Examples

  • JOHN KASS, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Well, this is Chicago politics, OK?

    CNN Transcript Jan 6, 2009 2009

  • This behemoth plane costs $53,000 PER HOUR to operate ... so, for him and his wife to have Valentine's Night dinner in their favorite CHICAGO night spot he spent how much of our TAX DOLLARS whisking himself, his family and STAFF to Chicago?

    Is Air Force One Becoming Obama's Mission Accomplished Albatross 2009

  • MAYOR RICHARD DALEY, CHICAGO: In Chicago, you go to a community, you go to a large city or a small city.

    CNN Transcript May 6, 2009 2009

  • JODY WEIS, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: I'm sure he would love to do something to help the city of Chicago.

    CNN Transcript Jul 18, 2008 2008

  • CHERYLE JACKSON, CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE: What I have learned from people in Chicago, is that entrepreneurship is a real solution driving a lot of the social problems that the we see today.

    CNN Transcript Jul 23, 2008 2008

  • EARLY NEXT YEAR, THE CHICAGO COP SHOP made famous by "" Hill Street Blues '' will house a new outfit: campus security for the University of Illinois at Chicago.

    We'll See You Back At The Station House 2008

  • CHICAGO - Workers laid off from their jobs at a Chicago factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.

    Nick Mamatas' Journal nihilistic_kid 2008

  • JOHN KASS, "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE": He's merely a Chicago politician who was caught on tape.

    CNN Transcript Dec 12, 2008 2008

  • RAYMOND OROZCO, CHICAGO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICE: What I will tell you is that this cost of this event will not be paid for by the taxpayers of the City of Chicago.

    CNN Transcript Oct 24, 2008 2008

  • RICK PEARSON, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Well, it sounds like the attorney general may have tried to interpret something from a tabloid Chicago newspaper report that said that the governor was considering resigning.

    CNN Transcript Dec 15, 2008 2008

Comments

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  • I am a native born in Chicago. My pronunciation of the city's name stamps me as native.

    sha caw' go

    April 2, 2009

  • Chic ago.


    June 6, 2015