Pronunciations (5)
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/t͡ʃæf/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/t͡ʃɑːf/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/t͡ʃæf/
Pronunciation notes
- US
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tʃæf
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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tʃæf
Pronunciation notes
- US
Noun
The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.
Usage- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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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.
More examples (1)
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.
Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
Usage- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
Usage- Figurative
- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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the chaff and ruin of the times
More examples (1)
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.
Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
Usage- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection.
Usage- Uncountable
- usually
- Synonyms
- Narrower terms
Verb
To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
Usage- Intransitive
To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language.
Usage- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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We were talking about it at mess, yesterday, and chaffing Derby Oaks—until he was as mad as a hatter.
More examples (1)
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[.]
To cut up (straw or hay) for use as cattle feed.
Usage- Transitive
Noun
material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
- Broader terms
foil in thin strips; ejected into the air as a radar countermeasure
- Broader terms
Verb
be silly or tease one another
- Examples
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After we relaxed, we just kidded around