chaff.
The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.
Meaning & usage
The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.
To separate out the chaff, early cultures tossed baskets of grain into the air and let the wind blow away the lighter chaff.
Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English chaf, from Old English ċeaf, from Proto-West Germanic *kaf. Cognate with Scots caff, Saterland Frisian Sääf, West Frisian tsjêf, Dutch kaf, German Low German Kaff, regional German Kaff.
To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language.
To cut up (straw or hay) for use as cattle feed.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English chaf, from Old English ċeaf, from Proto-West Germanic *kaf. Cognate with Scots caff, Saterland Frisian Sääf, West Frisian tsjêf, Dutch kaf, German Low German Kaff, regional German Kaff.
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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.