chaffer
Bargaining; merchandise.
Noun
- Bargaining; merchandise.
- vittels, and other chaffer and merchandize were excéeding cheape: for at London a quarter of wheat was sold for two shillings - 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and...
- A person's mouth.
- Moisten [or] damp your chaffer: take something to drink.
Origin
From Middle English chaffare (“a bargain, a trade”, noun), equivalent to cheap + fare.
Forms
Noun agriculture, business
- The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed.
- A fan blows air through the chaffer to remove lightweight material known as chaff. - 2003, William W. Casady, “Grain Harvesting Systems”, in Dennis R. Heldman, editor, Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological...
Synonyms: blower cleaning sieve
- A person who or thing that chaffs.
Origin
Etymology tree English chaff Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzijos Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English chaffer From chaff + -er.
Forms
Verb
- To haggle or barter.
- To chaffer for preferment with his gold. - 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Character of a Good Parson; Imitated from Chaucer, and Inlarg’d”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- 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...
- 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...
- To buy.
- 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. - 1922, John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga: