chaffer

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English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To haggle or barter.
    • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Character of a Good Parson; Imitated from Chaucer, and Inlarg’d”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; [], London: [] Jacob Tonson, [], →OCLC:
      To chaffer for preferment with his gold.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Alteration”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. [], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, [], →OCLC, page 25:
      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?
    • 1866, “Mr. Dod's Six Shots”, in Harper's Magazine[1], volume 32, page 208:
      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.
    • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:
      But the people looked much like Caleb’s own. They wore dirty robes, chaffered at fruit stalls, spat, scratched.
  2. (transitive) To buy.
  3. To talk much and idly; to chatter.
    • 1922, John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga:
      The Dartie within him made him chaffer for five minutes with young Padwick concerning the favourite for the Cambridgeshire.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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chaffer (countable and uncountable, plural chaffers)

  1. (uncountable) bargaining; merchandise
  2. (countable, slang, obsolete) A person's mouth.
    Moisten [or] damp your chaffer: take something to drink.
Translations
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References
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  • (the mouth): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Etymology 2

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From chaff +‎ -er.

Noun

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chaffer (plural chaffers)

  1. (agriculture) The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed
    • 2003, William W. Casady, “Grain Harvesting Systems”, in Dennis R. Heldman, editor, Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering[2], →ISBN, page 449:
      A fan blows air through the chaffer to remove lightweight material known as chaff.
  2. A person or thing which chaffs.
Coordinate terms
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Translations
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Middle English

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Noun

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chaffer

  1. Alternative form of chaffare

Welsh

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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chaffer

  1. Aspirate mutation of caffer.

Mutation

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Mutated forms of caffer
radical soft nasal aspirate
caffer gaffer nghaffer chaffer

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.