My Word of the Day - La Palabra Diaria - "masticar"

I have decided to compliment my daily postings with a section called Word of the Day, or La Palabra Diaria. In it, I will include a word in Spanish that has come across my daily perusals of movies, pop culture, books, and other forms of periodicals in the Spanish speaking world. The word will include its part of speech (noun, verb, etc.), an approximate phonetic pronunciation, and an example of its usage.

La Palabra Diaria Daily Word
masticar verb, "to chew", [mahs-tee-KAHR]

David mastica su chicle contentamente. David chews his gum happily.