JargonFile/entries/chomp.txt
2014-04-26 16:54:15 +01:00

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chomp
vi. 1. To lose ; specifically, to chew on something of which more was bitten
off than one can. Probably related to gnashing of teeth. 2. To bite the bag;
See bagbiter. A hand gesture commonly accompanies this. To perform it, hold
the four fingers together and place the thumb against their tips. Now open
and close your hand rapidly to suggest a biting action (much like what
Pac-Man does in the classic video game, though this pantomime seems to
predate that). The gesture alone means chomp chomp (see Verb Doubling in the
Jargon Construction section of the Prependices). The hand may be pointed at
the object of complaint, and for real emphasis you can use both hands at
once. Doing this to a person is equivalent to saying You chomper! If you
point the gesture at yourself, it is a humble but humorous admission of some
failure. You might do this if someone told you that a program you had
written had failed in some surprising way and you felt dumb for not having
anticipated it.