Meaning of chaff | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.
   uncountable, usually
2. The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant
3. Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle
4. Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
   uncountable, usually
5. Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless
6. Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
   figuratively, uncountable, usually
7. Light jesting talk; banter; raillery
8. Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
   uncountable, usually
9. Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection
10. Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection.
    uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“To separate out the chaff, early cultures tossed baskets of grain into the air and let the wind blow away the lighter chaff.”

“So take the corn and leave the chaff behind.”

“In the passage outside the door, the threshers, who had done their day's work, were stamping the snow off their feet before they came in, - their hair full of chaff.”

“By adding chaff to his corn, the horse must take more time to eat it, and time is given for the commencement of digestion, before fermentation can occur. In this way chaff is very useful, especially after long fasts.”

“the chaff and ruin of the times”

“Who that has prided himself on his spiritual strength has not seen it humbled to the dust? A knowledge of religion, as distinguished from experience, seems but chaff in such moments of trial.”

“As for Huxter, perfectly at good-humour with himself, and the world, it never entered his mind that he could be disagreeable to anybody; and the little dispute, or “chaff,” as he styled it, of Vauxhall, was a trifle which he did not in the least regard.”

“It was the chaff of the College at the time, but I could not help it.”

CEFR level