chafe

See also: chafé

English

Etymology

From Middle English chaufen (“to warm”), borrowed from Old French chaufer (modern French chauffer), from Latin calefacere, calfacere (“to make warm”), from calere (“to be warm”) + facere (“to make”). See caldron.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /t͡ʃeɪf/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪf

Noun

chafe (countable and uncountable, plural chafes)

  1. Heat excited by friction.
  2. Injury or wear caused by friction.
  3. (archaic, countable, uncountable) Vexation; irritation of mind; rage.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      Like a wylde Bull, that, being at a bay, / Is bayted of a mastiffe and a hound / […] That in his chauffe he digs the trampled ground / And threats his horns […]
    • 1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, The Adventures Of A Revolutionary Soldier:
      When we returned we found the poor prisoner in a terrible chafe with the sentinel for detaining him, for the guard had been true to his trust.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

chafe (third-person singular simple present chafes, present participle chafing, simple past and past participle chafed)

  1. (transitive) To excite heat in by friction; to rub in order to stimulate and make warm.
  2. (transitive, figurative) To excite passion or anger in; to fret; to irritate.
  3. (transitive) To fret and wear by rubbing.
    to chafe a cable
  4. (intransitive) To rub; to come together so as to wear by rubbing; to wear by friction.
  5. (intransitive) To be worn by rubbing.
    A cable chafes.
  6. (intransitive, figurative) To have a feeling of vexation; to be vexed; to fret; to be irritated.
    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
      He will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter.
    • 1996, Jim Schiller, Developing Jepara in New Order Indonesia, page 58:
      Many local politicians chafed under the restrictions of Guided Democracy […]
    • 2025 August 19, Mike Isaac, Eli Tan, “Zuckerberg Again Overhauls Meta’s A.I. Efforts”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      As Meta has spent billions to bring in A.I. talent, some members of the old guard have chafed at the new hires, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
      (Can we archive this URL?)

Derived terms

Translations

References

Middle English

Verb

chafe

  1. alternative form of chaufen

Spanish

Verb

chafe

  1. inflection of chafar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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