chaffer

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtʃæfə/
• (US) enPR: chăfʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈtʃæfɚ/
• Rhymes: -æfə(ɹ)

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

chaffer (third-person singular simple present chaffers, present participle chaffering, simple past and past participle chaffered)

1. (intransitive) To haggle or barter.
   • Dryden

     To chaffer for preferments with his gold.

   • 1866, “Mr. Dod's Six Shots”, in Harper's Magazine‎, 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.

2. (transitive) To buy.
3. To talk much and idly; to chatter.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Trench to this entry?)

• bargain
• barter
• haggle
• negotiate

chaffer

1. bargaining; merchandise

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holinshed to this entry?)

From chaff +‎ -er

chaffer (plural chaffers)

1. (agriculture) The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed
   • 2003, William W. Casady, “Grain Harvesting Systems”, in Dennis R. Heldman, editor, Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering‎, page 449:

     A fan blows air through the chaffer to remove lightweight material known as chaff.

• blower
• cleaning sieve

• IPA^(key): /ˈχafɛr/

chaffer

1. Aspirate mutation of caffer.