Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - chew up

1. If you chew food up, you chew it until it is completely crushed or soft. I took one of the pills and chewed it up. PHRASAL VERB: V n P, also V P n (not pron) 2. If something is chewed up, it has been destroyed or damaged in some way. (INFORMAL) Every spring the ozone is chewed up, and the hole appears. ...rebels who are now chewing up Government-held territory... This town is notorious for chewing people up and spitting them out. PHRASAL VERB: be V-ed P, V P n (not pron), V n P