CHAFF

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does chaff mean? 

• CHAFF (noun)
  The noun CHAFF has 2 senses:

1. material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds

2. foil in thin strips; ejected into the air as a radar countermeasure

  Familiarity information: CHAFF used as a noun is rare.

• CHAFF (verb)
  The verb CHAFF has 1 sense:

1. be silly or tease one another

  Familiarity information: CHAFF used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHAFF (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

chaff; husk; shuck; stalk; straw; stubble

Hypernyms ("chaff" is a kind of...):

plant material; plant substance (material derived from plants)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chaff"):

bran (broken husks of the seeds of cereal grains that are separated from the flour by sifting)

Derivation:

chaffy (abounding in or covered with or resembling or consisting of chaff)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Foil in thin strips; ejected into the air as a radar countermeasure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("chaff" is a kind of...):

foil (a piece of thin and flexible sheet metal)

Derivation:

chaffy (abounding in or covered with or resembling or consisting of chaff)

• CHAFF (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they chaff    ... he / she / it chaffs   
Past simple: chaffed   
Past participle: chaffed   
-ing form: chaffing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be silly or tease one another

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

banter; chaff; jolly; josh; kid

Context example:

After we relaxed, we just kidded around

Hypernyms (to "chaff" is one way to...):

bait; cod; rag; rally; razz; ride; tantalise; tantalize; taunt; tease; twit (harass with persistent criticism or carping)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

And thus I thought, even as we chaffed each other’s appearance, until we arrived ashore and there were other things to think about.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Martin noticed him no more that evening, except once when he observed him chaffing with great apparent success with several of the young women.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Besides, I owed you a little mystification, Lestrade, for your chaff in the morning.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As the major expressed it, the smile had often been struck from his mouth, as if by some invisible hand, when he has been joining the gayeties and chaff of the mess-table.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“You’ll get more off him than ever you bargained for,” answered Jim Belcher, and the crowd laughed at the rough chaff.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The artist himself was at that time busy upon two great designs; the first, to sow land with chaff, wherein he affirmed the true seminal virtue to be contained, as he demonstrated by several experiments, which I was not skilful enough to comprehend.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He stopped and looked at me, and said:—My friend John, when the corn is grown, even before it has ripened—while the milk of its mother-earth is in him, and the sunshine has not yet begun to paint him with his gold, the husbandman he pull the ear and rub him between his rough hands, and blow away the green chaff, and say to you: 'Look! he's good corn; he will make good crop when the time comes.'

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And two days later, when he returned to his kill and found a dozen wolverenes quarrelling over the spoil, he scattered them like chaff; and those that fled left two behind who would quarrel no more.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Scraps of popular songs were chorused with an enthusiasm which was a strange prelude to a scientific lecture, and there was already a tendency to personal chaff which promised a jovial evening to others, however embarrassing it might be to the recipients of these dubious honors.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He said that if they were sent to the office he would be chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn’t have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the machine had come between us.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)