Definition of "chafe"

chafe

/t͡ʃeɪf/

noun
uncountable
1. Heat excited by friction.
2. Injury or wear caused by friction.
3. Vexation; irritation of mind; rage.
  Quotations
  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 […]
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
4. (archaic) An expression of opinionated conflict.
  Quotations
  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.
  1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, The Adventures Of A Revolutionary Soldier
verb
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) To excite passion or anger in; to fret; to irritate.
3. (transitive) To fret and wear by rubbing.
4. (intransitive) To rub; to come together so as to wear by rubbing; to wear by friction.
  Quotations
  the troubled Tiber chafing with her shores
  1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]
  [Gitche Manito] Breathed upon the neighbouring forest, / Made its great boughs chafe together, / Till in flame they burst and kindled; […]
  1855 November 10, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Peace-pipe”, in The Song of Hiawatha, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, page 12
5. (intransitive) To be worn by rubbing.
6. (intransitive) To have a feeling of vexation; to be vexed; to fret; to be irritated.
  Quotations
  He will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter.
  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, [Act V, scene iii]
  Many local politicians chafed under the restrictions of Guided Democracy […]
  1996, Jim Schiller, Developing Jepara in New Order Indonesia, page 58

Definition of "chafe"

chafe

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations