▪ I. chaff, n.1
(tʃɑːf, -æ-)
Forms: 1 ceaf, cef, 2 chæf, 2–4 chef, (2, 4 cheue, 4 chaue), 4 cheff, 3–5, 7 chaf, 4–7 chaffe, 3–4, 6– chaff; north. 4 caf, 5 kaf, kaff, kafe, 6 caiff, 4–7 caffe, 5–9 caff. (Occasional 4 schaf, 5 shaffe.)
[OE. ceaf, corresp. to MDu. caf (Du. kaf), MHG., MLG., dial. Ger. kaf neut., related to OHG. cheva husk, pod, and possibly to a Teut. root kef- gnaw: cf. chavel, jowl. The southern form in ME. was chef, the midland chaff; the northern caf, caff, still extant; in Scotl. also cauve. Commonly collective.]
1. a. A collective term for the husks of corn or other grain separated by threshing or winnowing.
(α) form chef.
| c 1000 ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 148 Palea, ceaf. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke iii. 17 Þæt ceaf he forbærnþ. c 1160 Hatton G. ibid., Þæt chæf he forbernð. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 85 Þet smal chef þet flid ford mid þe winde. Ibid. Of þe smal cheue. a 1225 Juliana 79 Þat dusti chef. c 1340 Ayenb. 210 Be-tuene þe cheue and þe corn [nom. passim chef]. |
(β) form chaff.
| c 1200 Ormin 1483 And siþþenn winndwesst tu þin corn, And fra þe chaff itt shædesst. c 1205 Lay. 29256 Þer biforen he gon ȝeoten draf and chaf and aten. c 1340 Cursor M. 4791 (Trin.) To fynde þe chaue Corn þere shul we fynde to haue. Ibid. 21113 (Fairf.) Quik þai haue his bodi flaine & waltered him in barli chaf. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 663 And so þei chewen charitie as chewen schaf houndes. c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 1684 Barly brede with al the chaf. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 134 b, As the flayle tryeth y⊇ corne from the chaffe. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 985 Least on the threshing floore his hopeful sheaves Prove chaff. 1715–20 Pope Iliad v. 613 The light chaff, before the breezes borne. a 1811 J. Leyden Ld. Soulis lxii, The barley chaff to the sifted sand They added still by handfuls nine. |
(γ) form caf, caff.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 4751 (Cott.) Þe caf he cast o corn sumquile In the flum þat hait þe nile. a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxxiv. 21 Caf þat is light to fle wiþ þe wynd. 1483 Cath. Angl. 51 Caffe, acus, palea. 15.. Scot. Poems 16th C. (1801) 98 (Jam.) As.. caffe before the wind. 1670 Ray Proverbs 285 Kings caff is worth other mens corn. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 334 To sleep on caff. 1875 Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Caff (N. Lanc.), chaff, refuse. 1877 Holderness Gloss. (E.D.S.) Caff, chaff. |
† b. A plural occurs in OE. and ME., e.g. to translate paleæ of the Vulgate. Obs.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. iii. 12 Þa ceafu [Lindisf. halmas; c 1160 Hatton G. chefu] he forbærnð on unadwæscendlicum fyre. 1382 Wyclif Matt. iii. 12 But chaffis he shal brenne with fyr unquenchable. ― Ezek. xiii. 10 With outen chaffis [Vulg. absque paleis]. |
† 2. transf. The husks of pease and beans. Obs.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 110 Two basketfull of bene chaf. 1611 Cotgr., Faval, the chaffe, shalings, hullings, offals, or cleansing of Beanes. |
3. Cut hay and straw used for feeding cattle. (It is doubtful whether the early instances of ‘chaff’ used in brick-making, etc., belong here. A chaff-cutting machine is described in Lewis Hist. Thanet 1736 Plate IV. p. 16, but not by this name, being called ‘a cutting box to cut horse's meat in’.)
| [c 1000 ælfric Exod. v. 7 Ne sylle ᵹe leng nan cef ðis Ebreiscan folc to tiᵹel ᵹeweorce. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2889 Hem-seluen he fetchden ðe chaf ðe men ðor hem to gode gaf. 1382 Wyclif Isa. lxv. 25 The leoun and the oxe shuln ete chaf [1388 stree]. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 44/1 In my faders hows is place ynough to lodge the & thy camels & plente of chaf & heye for them. c 1535 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 915 Litter or chaff, paille.] 1772 W. Bailey Advancem. Arts (1783) I. 42 Mr. Edgill's Machine for cutting chaff. 1834 Brit. Husb. viii. 212 If fed..upon indifferent hay and straw, it then becomes necessary to cut it into chaff. |
4. Bot. a. The thin dry leaves or bracts of the flower of grasses, esp. the inner pair now usually called pales or glumelles, distinct from the outer pair called glumes. b. The bracts at the base of the florets in Compositæ. (The plural is obs.)
| 1776 Withering Bot. Arrangem. (1796) I. 195 Eryngium..florets sitting, separated by chaff. Ibid. III. 669 Hyoseris, Receptacle naked: Down hair-like; encompassed by awned chaff. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xiii. 133 [Canary-grass] the chaffs being turgid and hairy. Ibid. 134 The keel of the chaffs is ciliate. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. II. 406 In the blooming season, for wheat, there are three stamens, or male portions, thrown out beyond the chaff or calyx. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. v. 142 Palets, also called Chaff, are diminutive or chaff-like bracts or bractlets on the axis (or receptacle) and among the flowers of a dense inflorescence, such as a head of Compositæ..the name is also given to an inner series of the glumes of grasses. |
5. a. In various fig. or allusive contexts, from sense 1. (Cf. Matt. iii. 12, etc.)
| c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 603 Me lust not of the caf ne of the stree Make so long a tale, as of the corn. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 59 It were a short beyete To winne chaffe and lese whete. 1535 Lyndesay Satyre 3531 Thy words war nather corne nor caiff. 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 18 You may wel thinke that I sell my corne and eate Chaffe. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. i. 117 His reasons are two graines of wheate hid in two bushels of chaffe: you shall seeke all day ere you finde them, & when you haue them they are not worth the search. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. vi. §9 You may see here [Jer. xxiii. 28] a distinction made between wheat and chaff, true and spurious. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. vi, Vacant chaff well meant for grain. 1882 Athenæum 5 Aug. 171/3 Though there is a little chaff there is also a good deal of wheat. |
b. Proverb. an old bird is not caught with chaff; and allusions to it.
| 1481 Caxton Reynard 110, I am no byrde to be locked ne take by chaf, I know wel ynowh good corn. c 1600 Shakes. Timon iv. ii, An olde birde is not caught with chaffe. 1665–9 Boyle Occas. Refl. v. x. (1675) 336 The empty and Trifling Chaff, Youth is wont to be caught with. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (L.) The doctor, being a shy cock, would not be caught with chaff. 1856 J. H. Newman Callista (1885) 249, I am too old for chaff. 1873 Hale In His Name vi. 50 That's old chaff for such as we. |
6. transf. and fig. a. Refuse, worthless matter.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1064 Caffe of creatours alle, thow curssede wriche! 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. i. viii. (Arb.) 96 (marg.) Perles as common as chaffe. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. ix. 48 How much honor Pickt from the chaffe and ruine of the times. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. i. ii. 262 Asses, fooles, dolts, chaffe and bran. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. xv, Some poor scholler, some parson chaff. 1670 Dryden Prol. Conq. Granada 42 Wheel-broad hats, dull humour, all that chaff, Which makes you mourn, and makes the vulgar laugh. 1799 Wordsw. Poet's Epit. iv, A soldier, and no man of chaff. 1842 Tennyson Epic 40 Twelve books of mine..Mere chaff and draff, much better burnt. |
b. Strips of metal foil or similar material released in the atmosphere to interfere with radar detection. orig. U.S.
| 1945 Sun (Baltimore) 29 Nov. 8/4 Under the disguise provided by aluminum ‘chaff’—a few ounces of which gives a radar reflection comparable to that of three heavy bombers. 1947 Siegert & Purcell in L. N. Ridenour Radar System Engin. iii. 82 ‘Window’ is the British and most commonly used code name for conducting foil or sheet cut into pieces of such a size that each piece resonates as a dipole at enemy radar frequency... The strong signals it returns so effectively mask the radar signals from aircraft that are in the midst of a cloud of window that several tons of aluminum used to be dispersed..on each..bomber raid. The U.S. Army referred to this material as ‘chaff’. 1962 Observer 11 Mar. 1/4 Metallic objects called ‘chaff’ were used by the Russians yesterday..in a new attempt to interfere with air traffic... The objects are about four inches long and about the width of a flat knitting needle. 1968 New Scientist 4 Apr. 9/1 As for the chaff itself, the move away from strips of aluminium foil to coated glass fibres has meant that twice as much deception can be stuffed into the same package. |
7. a. attrib. Of or resembling chaff.
| 1636 James Iter Lanc. 112 Those chaffe sands which doe in mountains rize. |
b. Comb., as chaff-bait, chaff-biscuit, chaff-bread, chaff-heap, chaff-house, chaff-knife, chaff-net, chaff-room; chaff-bed, a ‘bed’ or mattress stuffed with chaff instead of feathers, etc.; chaff-box, a chaff-cutter to be worked by hand; chaff-cutter, one who cuts chaff; a machine for cutting hay and straw for fodder, also called chaff-engine; chaff-flower, a name for Alternanthera achyrantha; chaff-scale Bot. (see quots.); chaff-seed, a name for Schwalbea americana. Also chaff-weed.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, xxxii, The Birds come in To his *Chaffe-baite. |
| 1582 Inv. of R. Hodgson, Kendal (Somerset Ho.), A *Caffe bed. 1663 Inv. Ld. Gordon's Furniture, Thair is in the bed, a caffe bed, a fethir bed, a pair blankets, and a red worset rug. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 592 Straw, or rather Chaff-Beds, with Ticks of Canvas. |
| 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxii, Salt meat and new rum, pease-pudding and *chaff-biscuits. |
| 1840 Flemish Husb. 89 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, The chaff-cutter is exactly like our common *chaff-box, where the work is done by the hand. 1908 Essex Rev. XVII. 24 A century or so ago, a handworked chaff-box was in almost daily use on every large farm. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Pain de bale, *chaffe bread..the coursest kind of bread. |
| 1772 W. Bailey Advancem. Arts (1783) I. 192 A new invented *chaff cutter invented by Mr. Wm. Bailey. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 124 Chaff-cutters are used by Mr. Fellows and other gentlemen in the county. 1854 Illust. Lond. News 5 Aug. 118/3 Occupations of the People. Chaffcutter. |
| 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts 323 Since the house of Jacob is now as a little corne left in a *chaffe⁓heape. |
| c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 670 Hoc palare, *chaf-house. 1483 Cath. Angl. 51 A Caffe hows, paliare, paliarium. |
| 1833 Manuf. Metal iii. II. 55 (Cab. Cycl.) *Chaff-knife backs, and hay-knife backs. |
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 68 *Chaffenette to take byrdys, retiaculum. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. i. ii. 34. |
| 1834 Brit. Husb. I. 99 Along the opposite side of the yard are the *chaff-room, various domestic offices, etc. |
| 1856 W. B. Carpenter Microsc. 447 The hairs with which the paleæ (*chaff-scales) of most Grasses are furnished, are strengthened by the like siliceous deposit. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 531 At the base of each spikelet [of wheat] are two empty boat-shaped glumes or ‘chaff-scales’. |
▪ II. chaff, n.2 colloq.
(tʃɑːf, -æ-)
[Of this and the related chaff v.2, the origin is not quite certain: if the n. is earlier, it may be a fig. use of prec. (cf. senses 5, 6 there); if the vb. is the starting point, it may be a playful or light use of chaff, chafe v., senses 5 and 6 of which come very near to it.]
Banter, light and good-humoured raillery, or ridicule, calculated to try the temper of the person to whom it is addressed; badinage (App. of slang origin, and still somewhat vulgar.)
(The first quot. is uncertainly placed: it may mean ‘scolding’: cf. chafe v. 6.)
| [1648 W. Jenkyn Blind Guide iv. 76 You pretend to nothing but chaffe and scoffes.] 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge (C.D. ed.) 42, ‘I do’, said the 'prentice. ‘Honour bright. No chaff, you know.’ 1855 Thackeray Newcomes I. 286 There's enough of this chaff. I have been called names and blackguarded enough. 1858 Sat. Rev. 7 Aug. 127/2 Chaff, as the vulgar call it, when it is real good chaff, is an element in statecraft. 1885 Manch. Even. News 6 July 2/2 They got through a few overs..amidst the chaff of a good-natured crowd. |
▪ III. chaff, v.1
(tʃɑːf, -æ-)
[f. chaff n.1]
Hence chaffed ppl. a., ˈchaffing vbl. n.
1. trans. To mix with chaff; = chave v.1
| 1552 Huloet, Chaffed or myxt with chaffe, paleatus. |
2. To cut (hay, straw, etc.) for fodder.
| 1883 Hertfordsh. Mercury 6 Dec. 4/4 In most other cases the grass has been chaffed when put into the silo. 1887 Times 7 Sept. 3/3 Mr. Henry Simmonds fed..the young stock on chaffed hay and straw. Ibid. [He] was in the habit of supplying winter food..by chaffing up the straw. |
▪ IV. chaff, v.2 colloq.
(tʃɑːf, -æ-)
[see chaff n.2: the relative priority of vb. and n. is unsettled.]
trans. To banter, rail at, or rally, in a light and non-serious manner, or without anger, but so as to try the good nature or temper of the person ‘chaffed’.
(A word or sense which probably arose as cadgers' slang, and is still considered slangy, and usually apologized for by inverted commas.)
| 1827 [see chaffing]. 1850 H. Greville Leaves fr. Diary (1883) 375 Charles was very amusing in chaffing Lady C. for her violent anti-Catholic feeings. 1857 Kingsley Two Y. Ago xv. (D.) A dozen honest fellows grinned when their own visages appeared, and chaffed each other about the sweethearts who were to keep them while they were out at sea. 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Times II. 264 Palmerston is in the Home office, pleasantly ‘chaffing’ militia colonels. 1885 Dicey Introd. Lect. Law of Const. 174 The Regent treated the affair as a sort of joke, and, so to speak, ‘chaffed’ the supposed author of the satire. |
b. absol. or intr.
| a 1845 Barham Ingold. Leg. (1877) 319 Not pausing to chaff or to parley. |
Hence ˈchaffing vbl. n. and ppl. a., ˈchaffingly adv.
[Cf. 1575 in chafing vbl. n. 1.]
| 1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 1009 Much ‘chaffing’ passed between them. 1861 N. A. Woods Pr. Wales in Canada 426 There were ‘chaffing’ signals too, going on between the vessels. 1876 Burnaby Ride Khiva vi, Being a little annoyed at the chaffing remarks of the grinning peasants. 1871 Daily News 24 Jan., The men took to criticising each other's performances, not chaffingly, but quite seriously. 1883 Proctor in Knowledge 13 July 28/1 A habit chaffingly attributed to the Missourian belles. |
▪ V. chaff, v.3 Bread-making.
(tʃɑːf, -æ-)
trans. To roll up (dough) into a rounded form in the moulding of a round loaf. Hence ˈchaffing vbl. n.
| 1892 R. Wells Pract. Bread Baker 44 How to mould a round loaf... Divide the dough into parts, having the right hand piece smaller than the left. Now chaff this into two round pieces. 1925 Glasgow Herald 9 Oct. 6 The loaf is shaped on the chaffing table. |
▪ VI. chaff
var. chaft, jaw, and obs. form of chafe.