chaff

noun

1. (uncountable, usually)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.”

   “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.”

2. (uncountable, usually)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, and time is given for the commencement of digestion, before fermentation can occur. In this way chaff is very useful, especially after long fasts.”

3. (figuratively, uncountable, usually)Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.

   “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.”

4. (uncountable, usually)Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.

   “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.”

5. (uncountable, usually)Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection.

verb

1. (intransitive)To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
2. (transitive)To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language.

   “We were talking about it at mess, yesterday, and chaffing Derby Oaks—until he was as mad as a hatter.”

   “I’ve fallen asleep on my step as the ’bus was going on, and almost fallen off. I have often to put up with insolence from vulgar fellows, who think it fun to chaff a cad, as they call it.”

   “Bobby Wick stormed through the tents of his Company, rallying, rebuking, mildly, as is consistent with the Regulations, chaffing the faint-hearted[.]”

3. (transitive)To cut up (straw or hay) for use as cattle feed.