Chaff
[tʃɑːf;tʃæf] or [tʃæf]
Definition
(noun.) foil in thin strips; ejected into the air as a radar countermeasure.
(noun.) material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds.
Typist: Wilhelmina--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The glumes or husks of grains and grasses separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing, etc.
(n.) Anything of a comparatively light and worthless character; the refuse part of anything.
(n.) Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
(n.) Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
(n.) The scales or bracts on the receptacle, which subtend each flower in the heads of many Compositae, as the sunflower.
(v. i.) To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
(v. t.) To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz.
Typed by Geoffrey
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Husks, hulls, glumes.[2]. Refuse, worthless matter.
v. a. Ridicule, mock, scoff, deride, jeer, flout, make fun of, POKE FUN AT.
Checked by Eli
Definition
n. a general name for the husks of corn or other grain as threshed or winnowed: refuse or worthless matter: light banter badinage.—v.t. to banter or tease by some raillery.—ns. Chaff′-cut′ter Chaff′-en′gine a machine for cutting straw or hay into chaff.—n. and p.adj. Chaff′ing.—adv. Chaff′ingly.—adjs. Chaff′less; Chaff′y.
Typist: Wesley
Unserious Contents or Definition
To see chaff, denotes an empty and fruitless undertaking and ill health causing much anxiety. Women dreaming of piles of chaff, portends many hours spent in useless and degrading gossip, bringing them into notoriety and causing them to lose husbands who would have maintained them without work on their part.
Checker: Olga
Examples
- Drat him, give him a meal of chaff! Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- We thresh fascists today,' said one, 'and out of the chaff comes the freedom of this pueblo. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- If the cleaning of the grain and separating it from the chaff and dirt are not had in the threshing process, separate machines are employed for fanning and screening. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The truth was, it was a base fraud--a snare to trap the unwary--chaff to catch fledglings with. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Besides, I owed you a little mystification, Lestrade, for your chaff in the morning. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Like a speeches of chaff. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- In the presence of Lord Decimus, to detain the host with chopping our dry chaff of law, was really too bad! Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
Inputed by Jarvis