chaffer
/ˈt͡ʃæfɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.30 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed.
Example Sentences
- "To chaffer for preferment with his gold."
- "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?"
- "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."
- "But the people looked much like Caleb’s own. They wore dirty robes, chaffered at fruit stalls, spat, scratched."
- "The Dartie within him made him chaffer for five minutes with young Padwick concerning the favourite for the Cambridgeshire."
- "vittels, and other chaffer and merchandize were excéeding cheape: for at London a quarter of wheat was sold for two shillings"
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: chaffare
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈt͡ʃæfɚ/
- British English: /ˈtʃæfə/