chaffとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃæf/, /t͡ʃɑːf/
• (米国発音) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃæf/
• 韻: -æf

名詞

chaff (usually uncountable, 複数形 chaffs)

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

   Coordinate term: bran

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

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     So take the corn and leave the chaff behind.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 251:

     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. Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
   • 1831, William Youatt, The Horse, page 130:

     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. (figurative) Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ix]:

     the chaff and ruin of the times

   • 1927-1929, Mahatma Gandhi, chapter XXI, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth, published 1940:

     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. Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I または II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

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

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

   Synonym: window

   Hyponym: rope

派生語

参考

• paleaceous
• paleous

動詞

chaff (三人称単数 現在形 chaffs, 現在分詞 chaffing, 過去形および過去分詞形 chaffed)

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; to quiz.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 10, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I または II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

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

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

参照

• chaff in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Chaff in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)