(Australia, New-Zealand, UK, uncountable) Taunting or teasing.
Dennis captured the speech rhythms and humour of ordinary Australians, their gift of 'chiack', and their deflection of adversity with a ready joke. 2004, Eugene Benson, L.W. Conolly, Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English:
I took some chiack from the drivers: Was that the schottische you was dancing on them logs? 2007, Les A. Murray, Fredy Neptune, page 76:
Indeed, the man was less brute than boor; he also spoke the truth. He had not seriously exceeded the limits of legitimate “chiack.” 1900 May, E. W. Hornung, “The Jackeroo on G-Block”, in The Strand Magazine, volume 19, number 113, page 368:
It was, Janet thought, a symbol of male religion: there they all were, yappings stilled as they attended League mass, quaffing their communion Tooheys, joining in the votive prayers of groan, chiack, cheer. 1999, Thea Astley, Drylands:
I felt as if I couldn't go that fur, An' start to sling off chiack like I used... 1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, page 16:
(Australia, New-Zealand, UK, transitive) To taunt or tease.
Will you look at us by the river! The whole restless mob of us on spread blankets in the dreamy briny sunshine skylarking and chiacking about for one day, one clear, clean, sweet day in a good world in the midst of our living. 1991, Tim Winton, 'Cloudstreet', Picador UK Paperback edition 1992 (Chapter 1, at page 1: the book's opening lines)
They were cheerful enough, liked a bit of chiacking, and the women enjoyed the bawdy undertones of their jokes. 1987, Sheila Anderson, “End of the Season”, in Anna Gibbs, Alison Tilson, editors, Frictions, An Anthology of Fiction by Women, page 45:
We believed Melbourne′s two most extraordinary institutions were those of chiacking – taking the piss – and larrikinism. Although the latter would develop derogatory connotations, and chiacking was already beginning to die a slow death, sometimes perceived as offensive in its more alcoholic forms, especially by the women in our group. 2008, Graeme Blundell, The Naked Truth: A Life in Parts, published 2011, unnumbered page:
Jack soon learnt that it was not politic to attack big snakes, which included the adult black, brown, and the death-ader, though he might "chiack" them to his heart's content. 1912 March 1, Edward S. Sorenson, “The Biography of a Kookaburra”, in The Lone Hand, volume 10, page 366:
Most poignantly of all, though, when I get fed up with working alone, I remember Victorian high school staffrooms of the sixties and seventies: the rigid hierarchy with its irritations, but also the chiacking, the squabbles, the timely advice from some old stager with a fag drooping off his lip. 2008, Helen Garner, “The Art of the Dumb Question”, in True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction, page 13: