From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishchew something ↔ up phrasal verb1 to damage or destroy something by tearing it into small pieces Be careful if you use that video recorder. It tends to chew tapes up.2 BITEto bite something many times with your teeth so that you can make it smaller or softer and swallow it The dog’s chewed up my slippers again. → chew→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
chew up• If used on copper, they will chew it up.• She stood there watching the house and chewing herself up.• They just chewed it up and spit it out, foaming rubber at the mouth.• Franco put his in his mouth and chewed it up, he was teething at the time. 