Chafe

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪf

Origin

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

Full definition of chafe

Noun

1. Heat excited by friction.
2. Injury or wear caused by friction.
3. Vexation; irritation of mind; rage.
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.5: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 ….

Verb

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; as, to chafe a cable.
4. (intransitive) To rub; to come together so as to wear by rubbing; to wear by friction.
• Shakespearethe troubled Tiber chafing with her shores
• Longfellowmade its great boughs chafe together
5. (intransitive) To be worn by rubbing.A cable chafes.
6. (intransitive) To have a feeling of vexation; to be vexed; to fret; to be irritated.
• ShakespeareHe 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...