chaffing

1. Pertaining to rubbing and abrasion.

   This chaffing block has an obvious channel for fire hose and straps to attach it to the hose .

   2009, Glenn P. Corbett, Fire Engineering's Handbook for Firefighter I and II, page 418

   2 more examples

   He had sand in his hair, his ears, his underwear. It was all very chaffing, and he wanted a shower.

   2011, Justin McLachlan, Time Up, page 152

   The clothes required carefully rinsing, since lye soap left in the clothes was very chaffing to the skin.

   2012, Dale McMillan, Living Off the Land, page 12

2. Characterized by teasing and joking.

   The P.M. at Bridge afterwards was in a very chaffing mood.

   2023, Cameron Hazlehurst, Christine Woodland, A Liberal Chronicle in Peace and War, page 427

   2 more examples

   Concede all that to be true, and at the same time he is a man of exceeding vanity and egotism, fully confident of his own capacity, and judgment and superiority to other people, and he should make the remark in a chaffing or jesting way , that Jesus Christ was a good man, but he was smarter than Christ, would consider that expression standing alone, evidence of insanity ?

   1872, J.C. Bates·, Report of the proceedings and arguments in the Probate Court of the City and County of San Francisco, State of California On the Trial to Admit to Provate the Last Will and Testament of Horace Hawes, page 365

   Healy was in a very chaffing mood among his brother priests—complimented one on having been recently called to the Chapter , and , addressing another Pastor not so favoured , who possessed a house - organ of such neat workmanship that it was said a great hierarch once called to see it, exclaimed: 'Present that organ of yours as an offering, and you'll soon be as red about the gills as any of them.'

   1896, William John Fitz-Patrick, Memories of Father Healy of Little Bray, page 318

3. Of or for chaffing (cutting hay or straw into small lengths)

   The human labour naturally is tired in chaffing work by using ordinary chaff-cutters.

   1929, The Poona Agricultural College Magazine - Volumes 21-23, page 57

   2 more examples

   The quantity of "seeds" and dust produced at a chaffing depot is variable , depending upon the nature of the hay cut and the proportion of straw added.

   1919, Veterinary Journal and Annals of Comparative Pathology, page 59

   During that hard weather the very last reserve set of cogs of the chaffing machine in the High Barn were broken, by the old, old error of not declutching before changing gear.

   2011, Henry Williamson, Lucifer Before Sunrise

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of chaff

plural chaffings

1. countableuncountableThe act by which somebody is chaffed; a teasing.

   Grace had made Graham laugh many a time by her inimitable descriptions of the quaint tilts and chaffings of these graybeards, as each urged the views of his favorite journals[…]

   1883, Edward Payson Roe, His Sombre Rivals