chafe

plural chafes

1. countableuncountableHeat excited by friction.
2. countableuncountableInjury or wear caused by friction.
3. archaiccountableuncountableVexation; irritation of mind; rage.

   When we returned we found the poor prisoner in a terrible chafe with the sentinel for detaining him, for the guard had been true to his trust.

   1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, The Adventures Of A Revolutionary Soldier

   1 more example

   Like a wylde Bull, that, being at a bay, / Is bayted of a mastiffe and a hound / […] That in his chauffe he digs the trampled ground / And threats his horns […]

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

present singular third person chafes · participle present chafing · participle past chafed · past chafed

1. transitiveTo excite heat in by friction; to rub in order to stimulate and make warm.
2. figurativelytransitiveTo excite passion or anger in; to fret; to irritate.
3. transitiveTo fret and wear by rubbing.

   to chafe a cable

   1 more example

   i was reminded why i stopped wearing jeans. they hurt so bad compared to pleated pants […] yeah, but the sides of my hips and my junk were all sore. idr the english word, but ig they were ”wearing against it”. oh ”chafe”?

   2025 October 3, Oskar Skalmstad, “ThunderWazp”, in discord.com (Usenet)

4. intransitiveTo rub; to come together so as to wear by rubbing; to wear by friction.

   the troubled Tiber chafing with her shores

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   1 more example

   [Gitche Manito] Breathed upon the neighbouring forest, / Made its great boughs chafe together, / Till in flame they burst and kindled; […]

   1855 November 10, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Peace-pipe”, in The Song of Hiawatha, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 12

5. intransitiveTo be worn by rubbing.

   A cable chafes.

6. figurativelyintransitiveTo have a feeling of vexation; to be vexed; to fret; to be irritated.

   He will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]

   2 more examples

   Many local politicians chafed under the restrictions of Guided Democracy[…]

   1996, Jim Schiller, Developing Jepara in New Order Indonesia, page 58

   As Meta has spent billions to bring in A.I. talent, some members of the old guard have chafed at the new hires, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

   2025 August 19, Mike Isaac, Eli Tan, “Zuckerberg Again Overhauls Meta’s A.I. Efforts”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC