chem

English

Etymology

Clippings.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛm

Noun

chem (countable and uncountable, plural chems)

1. (uncountable, university slang, often capitalized) Clipping of chemistry (“branch of natural science”); usually referring to the subject or the department.
   • 2015 June 9, Lilah Raptopoulos, quoting Reed Shapiro, “Young people speak out about their fears and hopes on climate change”, in The Guardian‎:

     It boils down to science. Biology, chemistry and physics. I used to hate bio and chem. Now they fascinate me because I’ve realised they make up the world around us as well as us.

2. (countable, informal, often in the plural) Clipping of chemical.
   • 2016 August 4, Catherine Taylor, “The Many by Wyl Menmuir review – a disturbing debut”, in The Guardian‎:

     The seas, morosely fished by Ethan and the others, are heavily polluted, with Ethan informing Timothy, who risked a freezing dip: “If the tide doesn’t get you, the chems will. You want to stay healthy past forty, alive past fifty, you’ll remember to stay well out of the water.”

   • 2021 January 21, “'This is my baby!' - Heartache as police rip baby away from breastfeeding mum”, in The New Zealand Herald‎:

     The baby's parents tell of how they wash him with "fresh fluoride chlorine chemical-free water from the sky" and how those with him now are most likely "using artificial perfume and bathing him in chems".

   1. A chemical weapon.
      • 2022 March 24, “Biden press conference gives Putin less than nothing to fear”, in New York Post‎:

        This is the very opposite of what we’ve called for — namely, for Biden to publicly identify in advance a specific US (at least) hard-power response to Putin’s use of chems (or other weapons of mass destruction).

   2. A recreational drug.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:recreational drug

      • 2016 May 10, Ben Guarino, “The ‘chemsex’ scene: An increasingly popular and sometimes lethal public-health problem”, in The Washington Post‎:

        “I actively searched for someone to tell me how they’d made an informed and calculated choice to use chems and, that for them, the chem scene is just recreation.” […] “Even those who told me sex on chems made them feel ‘like a don’ would follow up such celebratory statements with tales of rejection, regret, loneliness and longing for intimacy,” he said.

      • 2017, James Wharton, Something for the Weekend‎, Biteback Publishing, →ISBN:

        When you think ‘drugs’, you think Trainspotting. ‘Chems’ is easier off the tongue and, although explicit, it doesn't feel quite as bad. At least to us.

Derived terms

Adjective

chem (not comparable)

1. (informal) Clipping of chemical.

   chem plant; chem weapons

   • 2017 April 13, David M. Tafuri, “Why Trump’s Attack on Syria Is Legal”, in Politico Magazine‎:

     [“]Use of chem weapons is horrific,” tweeted ACLU national security lawyer Hina Shamsi, “but Trump’s military action violates Constitution & U.N. charter. No legit domestic or international law basis.”

Derived terms

Further reading

• “chem”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “chems”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

Anagrams

• Emch, Mech, Mech., mech, mech.

Chinese

Etymology

From clipping of English chemistry.

Pronunciation

Noun

chem

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, colloquial) chemistry

See also

• phy chem bio

Romanian

Verb

chem

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of chema