chaff Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
    stubble; straw; husk; stalk; shuck.
  2. noun foil in thin strips; ejected into the air as a radar countermeasure
  3. verb be silly or tease one another
    banter; josh; jolly; kid.
    • After we relaxed, we just kidded around

WordNet

Chaff noun
Etymology
AC. ceaf; akin to D. kaf, G. kaff.
Definitions
  1. The glumes or husks of grains and grasses separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing, etc.
    So take the corn and leave the chaff behind. Dryden.
    Old birds are not caught with caff. Old Proverb.
  2. Anything of a comparatively light and worthless character; the refuse part of anything.
    The chaff and ruin of the times. Shak.
  3. Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
    By adding chaff to his corn, the horse must take more time to eat it. In this way chaff is very useful. Ywatt.
  4. Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
  5. (Bot.) The scales or bracts on the receptacle, which subtend each flower in the heads of many Compositæ, as the sunflower. Gray.
Chaff intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Chaffed ; present participle & verbal noun Chaffing
Definitions
  1. To use light, idle lagnguage by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
Chaff transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz.
    Morgan saw that his master was chaffing him. Thackeray.
    A dozen honest fellows . . . chaffed each other about their sweethearts. C. Kingsley.

Webster 1913