To chug means to drink something quickly in large gulps without stopping, often while tipping your head back. When someone chugs a glass of water after soccer practice, they're draining it fast because they're so thirsty. You might chug your orange juice at breakfast when you're running late for school.

The word captures both the action and the sound: chug, chug, chug. It's different from sipping, which is slow and gentle, or gulping, which might be just one or two big swallows. Chugging is continuous and determined.

The word also describes the rhythmic sound an engine makes, like the chug-chug-chug of an old steam train or a small motorboat. In both meanings, there's a sense of steady, repeated motion or sound, like a pattern you could tap out with your fingers.

People sometimes turn chugging into a competition, seeing who can finish a drink fastest, though this works better with water than hot chocolate.

As a noun, a chug is the sound itself, or one of those repeated bursts, like the chug of an engine.