Chaff definition

chăf
chaffed chaffing chaffs
See word origin
Frequency:
To chaff is to tease, especially in a light-hearted way.

When you joke around with someone and tease him, this is an example of a situation where you chaff.

verb
5
0
To tease or ridicule in a good-natured way.
verb
5
1
Finely cut straw or hay used as fodder.
noun
4
0
Anything regarded as worthless.
noun
3
0
Tiny strips of metal foil used to confuse enemy radar.
noun
3
0
Advertisement
Good-natured teasing or joking; banter.
noun
2
0
The husks of wheat or other grain separated in threshing or winnowing.
noun
2
1
(bot.) The bracts that enclose the individual florets on the receptacles of certain composite heads.
noun
1
0
The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.

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

noun
1
0
By extension, any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.

There are plenty of good books on the subject, but take care to separate the wheat from the chaff.

noun
1
0
Advertisement
Loose material dropped from aircraft specifically to interfere with radar detection.
noun
1
0
Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
noun
1
0
Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
noun
1
0
(intransitive) To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
verb
1
0
To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz.
verb
1
0
Advertisement
(botany) Thin dry bracts or scales, especially:
  • The dry bracts enclosing mature grains of wheat and some other cereal grasses, removed during threshing.
  • The scales or bracts borne on the receptacle among the small individual flowers of many plants in the composite family.
noun
1
1
Trivial or worthless matter.

Ignored the picky, unimportant criticisms that were just a lot of chaff.

noun
1
1
Strips of metal, foil, or glass fiber with a metal content, cut into various lengths and having varying frequency responses, that are used to reflect electromagnetic energy as a radar countermeasure. These materials, usually dropped from aircraft, also can be deployed from shells or rockets.
noun
1
1
To make fun of in a good-natured way; tease.

Chaffed him for forgetting the appointment.

verb
1
1
To engage in playful teasing.
verb
1
1
Advertisement
Good-natured teasing; banter.
noun
1
1
Fine-cut hay or straw, used for fodder.
noun
1
1
The definition of chaff refers to useless things, grain husks and fine-cut straw, or light-hearted spoken exchanges.

Trash that you do not want is an example of chaff.

Wheat grains found after threshing is an example of chaff.

Light-hearted teasing and banter is an example of chaff.

noun
0
1

Origin of chaff

  • Middle English chaf from Old English ceaf

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Possibly alteration of chafe or chaff

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Old English ceaf; akin to West Frisian tsjêf, Dutch kaf, German Kaff.

    From Wiktionary

Chaff Sentence Examples

  • These are thrown into a basket containing chaff made from the capsules.

  • The first step, it seems, is to separate the chaff from the grain.

  • It was left to the Stoics to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to assign to the words "knowledge" and "nature" a saner and more comprehensive meaning.

  • Cereal by-products - wheat chaff, maize gluten feed, rice bran.

  • Yesterday I passed a field in which they were burning the chaff.

More sentences

Related articles

Also Mentioned In

Words near chaff in the Dictionary