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chaff

 - 6 dictionary results

chaff

1  [chaf, chahf]
Use chaff in a Sentence
–noun
1. the husks of grains and grasses that are separated during threshing.
2. straw cut up for fodder.
3. worthless matter; refuse.
4. the membranous, usually dry, brittle bracts of the flowers of certain plants.
5. Also called window. Military. strips of metal foil dropped by an aircraft to confuse enemy radar by creating false blips.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME chaf, OE ceaf; c. MLG, D kaf

Related forms:
chaffless, adjective
chafflike, adjective

chaff

2  [chaf, chahf]
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
1. to mock, tease, or jest in a good-natured way; banter: She chaffed him for working late. They joked and chaffed with each other.
–noun
2. good-natured ridicule or teasing; raillery.
Origin:
1640–50; perh. from chaff 1

Related forms:
chaff⋅ing⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To chaff
chaff 1   (chāf)   
n.  

  1. Botany Thin dry bracts or scales, especially:

    1. The dry bracts enclosing mature grains of wheat and some other cereal grasses, removed during threshing.

    2. The scales or bracts borne on the receptacle among the small individual flowers of many plants in the composite family.

  2. Finely cut straw or hay used as fodder.

  3. Trivial or worthless matter: ignored the picky, unimportant criticisms that were just a lot of chaff.

  4. 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.


[Middle English chaf, from Old English ceaf.]
chaf'fy adj.
chaff 2   (chāf)   
v.   chaffed, chaff·ing, chaffs

v.   tr.
To make fun of in a good-natured way; tease.
v.   intr.
To engage in playful teasing. See Synonyms at banter.
n.  Good-natured teasing; banter.

[Possibly alteration of chafe or chaff1.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

chaff 
O.E. ceaf, from P.Gmc. *kaf-, *kef-. Chaffinch (Fringilla cælebs) is O.E. ceaffinc.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Bible Dictionary

Chaff

the refuse of winnowed corn. It was usually burned (Ex. 15:7; Isa. 5:24; Matt. 3:12). This word sometimes, however, means dried grass or hay (Isa. 5:24; 33:11). Chaff is used as a figure of abortive wickedness (Ps. 1:4; Matt. 3:12). False doctrines are also called chaff (Jer. 23:28), or more correctly rendered "chopped straw." The destruction of the wicked, and their powerlessness, are likened to the carrying away of chaff by the wind (Isa. 17:13; Hos. 13:3; Zeph. 2:2).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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