chaffer
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English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtʃæfə/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (US) enPR: chăfʹər, IPA(key): /ˈt͡ʃæfɚ/
- Rhymes: -æfə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English chaffare (“bargain, trade”, noun), equivalent to cheap + fare.
Verb
[edit]chaffer (third-person singular simple present chaffers, present participle chaffering, simple past and past participle chaffered)
- (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.
- (transitive) To buy.
- 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
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]Noun
[edit]chaffer (countable and uncountable, plural chaffers)
- (uncountable) bargaining; merchandise
- 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC:
- vittels, and other chaffer and merchandize were excéeding cheape: for at London a quarter of wheat was sold for two shillings
- (countable, slang, obsolete) A person's mouth.
- Moisten [or] damp your chaffer: take something to drink.
Translations
[edit]bargaining; merchandise
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References
[edit]- (the mouth): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]chaffer (plural chaffers)
- (agriculture) The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed
- A person or thing which chaffs.
Coordinate terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]chaffer
- Alternative form of chaffare
Welsh
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]chaffer
- Aspirate mutation of caffer.
Mutation
[edit]Categories:
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æfə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/æfə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English transitive verbs
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English slang
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms suffixed with -er (relational)
- en:Agriculture
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Welsh terms with IPA pronunciation
- Welsh non-lemma forms
- Welsh mutated verbs
- Welsh aspirate-mutation forms