chaff

CEFRC1

/t͡ʃæf/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The dry outer covering of grain.

  2. 02

    noun

    Light, worthless material separated from useful material.

Examples

  • It is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

  • Old birds are not caught with chaff.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.

  2. Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.

  3. The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.

More examples

In context

  • That person's so stingy that he won't even let the mouse have the chaff.

  • 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.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The farmer used a machine to separate the wheat from the blank before storage.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.