Chaffer

//ˈtʃæfə// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Bargaining; merchandise. uncountable

    "vittels, and other chaffer and merchandize were excéeding cheape: for at London a quarter of wheat was sold for two shillings"

  2. 2
    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."

  3. 3
    A person's mouth. countable, obsolete, slang

    "Moisten [or] damp your chaffer: take something to drink."

  4. 4
    A person who or thing that chaffs.
Verb
  1. 1
    To haggle or barter. intransitive

    "To chaffer for preferment with his gold."

  2. 2
    talk socially without exchanging too much information wordnet
  3. 3
    To buy. transitive
  4. 4
    wrangle (over a price, terms of an agreement, etc.) wordnet
  5. 5
    To talk much and idly; to chatter. informal, intransitive

    "The Dartie within him made him chaffer for five minutes with young Padwick concerning the favourite for the Cambridgeshire."

Example

More examples

"To chaffer for preferment with his gold."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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

Etymology 2

From chaff + -er.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.