chaff definition

English chaff definition

Etymology

From Middle English chaf, from Old English ċeaf, from Proto-West Germanic *kaf, from Proto-Germanic *kafą. Cognate with Scots caff, Saterland Frisian Sääf, West Frisian tsjêf, Dutch kaf, German Low German Kaff, regional German Kaff.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃæf/, /t͡ʃɑːf/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /tʃæf/
• Rhymes: -æf

Noun

chaff (usually uncountable, plural chaffs)

1. The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.

   Coordinate term: bran

   To separate out the chaff, early cultures tossed baskets of grain into the air and let the wind blow away the lighter chaff.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415:

     So take the corn and leave the chaff behind.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 251:

     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.

2. Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
   • 1831, William Youatt, The Horse, page 130:

     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.

3. (figuratively) Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ix]:

     the chaff and ruin of the times

   • 1927-1929, Mahatma Gandhi, chapter XXI, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth, published 1940:

     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.

4. Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December​, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], OCLC 2057953:

     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.

   • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure‎^[1]:

     It was the chaff of the College at the time, but I could not help it.

5. (military) Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection.

   Synonym: window

   Hyponym: rope

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• paleaceous
• paleous

Verb

chaff (third-person singular simple present chaffs, present participle chaffing, simple past and past participle chaffed)

1. (intransitive) To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
2. (transitive) To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December​, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 10, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], OCLC 2057953:

     We were talking about it at mess, yesterday, and chaffing Derby Oaks—until he was as mad as a hatter.

Translations

References

• chaff in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Chaff in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Middle English chaff definition

Noun

chaff

1. Alternative form of chaf