Lexic.us

Definition of Chaff

1. Verb. Be silly or tease one another. "After we relaxed, we just kidded around"

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

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

Definition of Chaff

1. n. The glumes or husks of grains and grasses separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing, etc.

2. v. i. To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.

3. v. t. To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz.

Definition of Chaff

1. Noun. The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant. ¹

2. Noun. By extension, any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless. ¹

3. Noun. Loose material dropped from aircraft specifically to interfere with radar detection. ¹

4. Verb. (intransitive) To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter. ¹

5. Verb. (transitive) To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Chaff

1. to poke fun at [v -ED, -ING, -S]

Medical Definition of Chaff

1. Thin, membranous scales or bracts, thin, dry unfertilized ovules among the fully developed seeds of a fruit. (21 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Chaff

chaetognaths chaetomium chaetophorous chaetopod chaetopods chaetotaxies chaetotaxy chafe chafed chafer

chaferies chafers chafery chafes chafeweed chaff (current term) chaffed chaffer chaffered chafferer

chafferers chafferies chaffering chaffern chafferns chaffers chaffery chaffier chaffiest chaffinch

Literary usage of Chaff

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Eastern Proverbs and Emblems Illustrating Old Truths by James Long (1881)
"chaff is light and easily carried away by the wind; such are sinners, ... A pound of wheat is worth a hundredweight of chaff; the husk, or chaff, however, ..."

2. Breeding Crop Plants by Herbert Kendall Hayes, Ralph John Garber (1921)
"In a durum- vulgare cross, Love and Craig (1918a) obtained in F2 an indication of a 15:1 ratio for brownish red and colorless chaff. ..."

3. A Systematic Arrangement of British Plants by William Withering, William Macgillivray (1837)
"chaff-scales single, uniform, in two rows, arranged in an imbricated spike. ... chaff-scales two, unequal. Flowers two, one of them bearing stamens only, ..."

4. Flora of the Southern United States: Containing an Abridged Description of by Alvan Wentworth Chapman (1897)
"Heads many-flowered ; the flowers all tubular and perfect, 5-cleft. Scales of the involucre imbricated in 2 rows. chaff of tlie convex receptacle rigid, ..."

5. Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: A Dictionary, Historical and by John Stephen Farmer, William Ernest Henley (1891)
"To chaff a man is vulgo, to humbug him ; for humbug, like chaff, is what may l>e scattered ... He could not of course put up with chaff in the streets. ..."

6. A Sketch of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia by Stephen Elliott (1824)
"Receptacle convex, chaff lanceolate, glabrous, with purple summits, nearly as long as the florets of the disk. Grows in mountain meadows from Pennsylvania ..."

7. A Treatise on the Progressive Improvement & Present State of the by Robert Hunt, John Holland (1853)
"chaff CUTTERS. CORN AND GRASS CUTTING MACHINES. CRUSHING MACHINES. ... These chaff knives are generally manufactured by the scythe makers throughout the ..."

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