chew the cud, to

To  ruminate, to  deliberate  over  something. For  more than four centuries, to chew on something has meant to think it over. Liken- ing  human  chewing  to  that  of  cows  and  other  ruminants,  which  bring  up food  in  a  cud  that  is  chewed  and  swallowed  again, goes  back  even  further. John  Wycliffe’s   translation   of   the   Book   of   Hosea   (1382)   reads,  “Thei chewiden  cud  upon  shete,  and  wyne,  and  departiden  fro  me”  (7:14);  the

King James Version (1611) differs (“They assemble themselves for corn and wine, and  they  rebel  against  me”). Nevertheless, half  a  century  before  that translation was published, chewing the cud in the sense of deep thinking had

made its way into a book of homilies (1547).