Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
chaff. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
chaff, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
chaff in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
chaff you have here. The definition of the word
chaff will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
chaff, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
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.
Pronunciation
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.
1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :the chaff and ruin of the times
- 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: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.
- (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
inedible parts of grain plant
- Albanian: byk (sq) m
- Armenian: դարման (hy) (darman), հարդ (hy) (hard)
- Belarusian: мякі́на f (mjakína), пало́ва f (palóva)
- Bulgarian: пля́ва (bg) f (pljáva)
- Catalan: pallús (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 秕糠 (zh) (bǐkāng), 穀殼 / 谷壳 (zh) (gǔké), 穀糠 / 谷糠 (zh) (gǔkāng), 糠 (zh) (kāng)
- Cimbrian: bülla f
- Czech: pleva f
- Danish: avne c
- Dutch: kaf (nl) n
- Finnish: ruumen (fi), akana (fi)
- French: balle (fr) f, bale (fr)
- Galician: tasco m, muíña f, palla (gl) f, coaño (gl) m, caño (gl) m, puxa f
- German: Spreu (de) f, (now rare) Kaff (de) n, Spelze (de) f
- Greek:
- Ancient: ἄχυρον n (ákhuron), λέπυρον n (lépuron)
- Hebrew: מוץ (he) (mótz)
- Hungarian: pelyva (hu), korpa (hu)
- Ido: palio (io)
- Indonesian: sekam (id)
- Irish: lóchán m, cáith f
- Italian: pula (it) f, crusca (it) f
- Japanese: 籾殻 (ja) (もみがら, momigara), もみがら (ja)
- Korean: 왕겨 (wanggyeo)
- Latin: apluda f, palea f
- Luxembourgish: Kuef m
- Macedonian: плева f (pleva)
- Malayalam: ഉമി (ml) (umi)
- Maltese: karfa f
- Manchu: ᠠᡵᠠ (ara)
- Maori: pāpapa
- Occitan: àbet m, ac (oc) m, òlva m, balòfa f
- Polabian: plåvoi
- Polish: plewy f pl
- Portuguese: moinha (pt) f, palha (pt) f
- Romanian: pleavă (ro) f
- Russian: мяки́на (ru) f (mjakína), пле́вел (ru) m (plével), се́чка (ru) f (séčka), поло́ва (ru) f (polóva)
- Sanskrit: पलाव (sa) m (palāva)
- Scottish Gaelic: càth f
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: плева f, пљева f
- Roman: pleva (sh) f, pljeva (sh) f
- Slovak: plevy f pl
- Slovene: pleva f
- Spanish: paja (es) f, barcia f, (Mexico) bagazo (es) m, tamo m
- Swahili: wishwa (sw)
- Swedish: agn (sv) c
- Thai: แกลบ (th) (glɛ̀ɛp)
- Tocharian B: pīsäl
- Turkish: kepek (tr)
- Ukrainian: поло́ва (uk) f (polóva)
- Uyghur: توپان (topan), كىپەك (kipek)
- Vietnamese: trấu (vi)
- Welsh: manus m pl
- West Frisian: tsjêf n
- White Hmong: npluag
|
straw or hay cut up for cattle food
excess or unwanted material
loose material dropped from aircraft to interfere with radar
See also
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.
- Synonym: 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:We were talking about it at mess, yesterday, and chaffing Derby Oaks—until he was as mad as a hatter.
1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861: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.
1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 148:Bobby Wick stormed through the tents of his Company, rallying, rebuking, mildly, as is consistent with the Regulations, chaffing the faint-hearted
- (transitive) To cut up (straw or hay) for use as cattle feed.
Derived terms
Translations
to use idle language to ridicule
References
Middle English
Noun
chaff
- alternative form of chaf