chaff
English
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): /t͡ʃæf/
- Rhymes: -æf
Noun
chaff (usually uncountable, plural chaffs)
- 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.
- 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.
-
- (figurative) 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.
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- 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, […], published 1849–1850, 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.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017:
- It was the chaff of the College at the time, but I could not help it.
-
- (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
- chaff engine
- chaffinch
- separate the wheat from the chaff
- sort the wheat from the chaff
- winnow the wheat from the chaff
- you can't catch old birds with chaff
Translations
inedible parts of grain plant
|
excess or unwanted material
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loose material dropped from aircraft to interfere with radar
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straw or hay cut up for cattle food
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light jesting talk
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See also
- paleaceous
- paleous
Verb
chaff (third-person singular simple present chaffs, present participle chaffing, simple past and past participle chaffed)
- (intransitive) To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
- (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, […], published 1849–1850, OCLC 2057953:
- We were talking about it at mess, yesterday, and chaffing Derby Oaks—until he was as mad as a hatter.
-
- (transitive) To cut up (straw or hay) for use as cattle feed.
Translations
to use idle language to ridicule
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to make fun of
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References
- chaff in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
Chaff in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
Middle English
Noun
chaff
- Alternative form of chaf