''chaffer'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''chaffer'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260305143651-00-⌔

chaffer - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

chaffer (third-person singular simple present chaffers, present participle chaffering, simple past and past participle chaffered)

• (intransitive) To haggle or barter.
  • ✤ Synonyms: bargain, negotiate, haggle, barter
  • ✤ To chaffer for preferment with his gold.¹
  • ✤ Walter declined the invitation, precisely because he wanted a dinner. He was, also, conscious that he had made a very bad bargain; but how could he chaffer and dispute about things so precious as the contents of those pages which were the very outpourings of his heart?²
  • ✤ While he is at the front end selling calico to some wearisome old lady, sunbonneted and chaffering, a mischievous boy is very apt to be pocketing lumps of sugar for profit, or starting the faucet of a molasses barrel for fun at the other.³
  • ✤ But the people looked much like Caleb’s own. They wore dirty robes, chaffered at fruit stalls, spat, scratched.⁴
• (transitive) To buy.
• (informal, intransitive) To talk much and idly; to chatter.
  • ✤ The Dartie within him made him chaffer for five minutes with young Padwick concerning the favourite for the Cambridgeshire.⁵

Noun

chaffer (countable and uncountable, plural chaffers)

• (uncountable) Bargaining; merchandise.
  • ✤ vittels, and other chaffer and merchandize were excéeding cheape: for at London a quarter of wheat was sold for two shillings⁶
• (countable, slang, obsolete) A person’s mouth.
  • ✤ Moisten[or] damp your chaffer: take something to drink.

Noun

chaffer (plural chaffers)

• (agriculture) The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed.
  • ✤ Synonyms: blower, cleaning sieve
  • ✤ A fan blows air through the chaffer to remove lightweight material known as chaff.⁷
• A person who or thing that chaffs.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtʃæfə/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• (US) enPR: chăfʹər, IPA: /ˈt͡ʃæfɚ/
• Rhymes: -æfə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English chaffare (“a bargain, a trade”, noun), equivalent to cheap +‎ fare.

Etymology 2

From chaff + -er.

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Character of a Good Parson; Imitated from Chaucer, and Inlarg’d”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC: ↩

2. 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Alteration”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 25: ↩

3. 1866, “Mr. Dod’s Six Shots”, in Harper’s Magazine ‎${}^{[1]}$, volume 32, page 208: ↩

4. 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked: ↩

5. 1922, John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga: ↩

6. 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC: ↩

7. 2003, William W. Casady, “Grain Harvesting Systems”, in Dennis R. Heldman, editor, Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering ‎${}^{[2]}$, →ISBN, page 449: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

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