▪ I. chaffy, a.1
(ˈtʃɑːfɪ, -æ-)
[f. chaff n.1 + -y1.]
1. Full of or covered with chaff.
| 1552 Huloet, Chaffye or full of chaffe, acerosus. 1601 Holland Pliny xix. i, To lie and sleep upon straw-beds and chaffy couches. 1797 Coleridge Kubla Khan, Like..chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail. 1865 Lisabee's Love Story I. 80 Looking dubiously at his chaffy trowsers. |
2. Consisting of, or of the nature of, chaff; spec. in Bot. paleaceous.
| 1597 Gerard Herbal i. ii. 4 Whereupon do grow small scaly or chaffie huskes. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 201 From the Straw and Chaffy part mixed with their Oates. 1791 E. Darwin Bot. Gard. ii. 9 note, The chaffy scales of the calyx. 1851 Glenny Handbk. Fl. Gard. 19 The flowers..are..of the chaffy texture known as ‘everlasting’. |
3. Resembling chaff.
| 1583 Stanyhurst Poems Ps. i. (Arb.) 126 Lyke the sand, or chaffye dust. 1791 J. Armstrong Imit. Shaks. (R.), Winnow the chaffy snow. |
4. fig. Light, empty, and worthless as chaff. (Said of things and persons.)
| 1594 Willobie Avisa 39 b, Chaffye thoughtes. 1603 Chettle Eng. Mourn. Garm. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 485 Stir up the chaffy multitude. 1612 Shakes. & Fl. Two Noble K. iii. i. 41 Thou liest, and art..a chaffy lord, Not worth the name of villain! 1642 R. Carpenter Experience v. xix. 331 That swelling and wordy, but chaffie, senselesse, and empty Pamphlet. 1819 J. Milner End Relig. Controv. ii. (ed. 2) 57 A dry and chaffy Epistle. |
5. Comb., as chaffy-textured.
| 1877 F. G. Heath Fern W. 21 Covered with various-coloured, chaffy-textured scales. |
▪ II. chaffy, a.2 Now rare.
(ˈtʃɑːfɪ, -æ-)
[f. chaff n.2 + -y1.]
Given to chaff or chaffing.
| 1855 A. Macmillan in C. L. Graves Life (1910) 78 The comic ‘chaffy’ vein is very monstrous. 1876 E. C. Stedman Vict. Poets i. 24 The time is off-hand, chaffy, and must be taken in its mood. 1889 Mrs. H. L. Cameron Lost Wife I. v. 94 He answered in the most ‘chaffy’ tone. |