chaff
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: government
military
politics
war
Etymology: From Middle English chaf, from Old English ċeaf, from Proto-West Germanic *kaf. Cognate with Scots caff, Saterland Frisian Sääf, West Frisian tsjêf, Dutch kaf, German Low German Kaff, regional German Kaff.
Inflected forms:
form: chaffs
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: chaffs
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: chaffing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: chaffed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: chaffed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: To separate out the chaff, early cultures tossed baskets of grain into the air and let the wind blow away the lighter chaff.
So take the corn and leave the chaff behind.
In the passage outside the door, the threshers, who had done their day's work, were stamping the snow off their feet before they came in, - their hair full of chaff.
gloss: Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: By adding chaff to his corn, the horse must take more time to eat it, and time is given for the commencement of digestion, before fermentation can occur. In this way chaff is very useful, especially after long fasts.
gloss: Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
uncountable
usually
examples: the chaff and ruin of the times
Who that has prided himself on his spiritual strength has not seen it humbled to the dust? A knowledge of religion, as distinguished from experience, seems but chaff in such moments of trial.
gloss: Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: As for Huxter, perfectly at good-humour with himself, and the world, it never entered his mind that he could be disagreeable to anybody; and the little dispute, or “chaff,” as he styled it, of Vauxhall, was a trifle which he did not in the least regard.
It was the chaff of the College at the time, but I could not help it.
gloss: Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
gloss: To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We were talking about it at mess, yesterday, and chaffing Derby Oaks—until he was as mad as a hatter.
I’ve fallen asleep on my step as the ’bus was going on, and almost fallen off. I have often to put up with insolence from vulgar fellows, who think it fun to chaff a cad, as they call it.
Bobby Wick stormed through the tents of his Company, rallying, rebuking, mildly, as is consistent with the Regulations, chaffing the faint-hearted[.]
gloss: To cut up (straw or hay) for use as cattle feed.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Related words: paleaceous
paleous
Derived words: chaffbag
chaff cutter
chaff engine
chaff flower
chaffinch
chaffless
chafflike
chaff tree
chaffweed
chaffy
prickly chaff flower
separate the wheat from the chaff
sort the wheat from the chaff
winnow grain from chaff
winnow the wheat from the chaff
you can't catch old birds with chaff
chaffer
Translations: