chafe.
Heat excited by friction.
Meaning & usage
Heat excited by friction.
Injury or wear caused by friction.
Vexation; irritation of mind; rage.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱleh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *ḱl̥h₁éh₁yeti Proto-Italic *kalēō Latin caleō Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Latin calefaciō Classical Latin calfaciō Vulgar Latin *calfō Old French chauferbor. Middle English chaufen English chafe Inherited from Middle English chaufen (“to warm”), borrowed from Old French chaufer (modern French chauffer), from Latin calefacere, calfacere (“to make warm”), from calere (“to be warm”) + facere (“to make”). See caldron.
To excite heat in by friction; to rub in order to stimulate and make warm.
To excite passion or anger in; to fret; to irritate.
To fret and wear by rubbing.
to chafe a cable
To rub; to come together so as to wear by rubbing; to wear by friction.
To be worn by rubbing.
A cable chafes.
To have a feeling of vexation; to be vexed; to fret; to be irritated.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱleh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *ḱl̥h₁éh₁yeti Proto-Italic *kalēō Latin caleō Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Latin calefaciō Classical Latin calfaciō Vulgar Latin *calfō Old French chauferbor. Middle English chaufen English chafe Inherited from Middle English chaufen (“to warm”), borrowed from Old French chaufer (modern French chauffer), from Latin calefacere, calfacere (“to make warm”), from calere (“to be warm”) + facere (“to make”). See caldron.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.