CHAFE
What does "CHAFE" mean?
To make sore by rubbing, or to feel or cause irritation and impatience.
Meanings
- To rub against something so as to make sore or worn. The stiff collar began to chafe his neck after an hour.
- To feel or express impatience and irritation at a restriction. The new recruits chafed under the endless rules. figurative
- To warm by rubbing. She chafed her cold hands together near the fire.
Did you know?
- 'Chafe' originally meant simply 'to warm' - it shares its Latin root, 'calefacere', with the word 'calorie'; only later did the warming friction come to mean rubbing something raw.
Word origin
From Old French 'chaufer' ('to heat, warm'), from Vulgar Latin 'calefare', from Latin 'calefacere' ('to make warm'); the meaning shifted from 'warm by rubbing' to 'rub raw'.
Remember it
CHAFE rhymes with 'safe' but means the opposite - rub something long enough and it's the furthest thing from safe.
A little poem
The rope and the post argue all afternoon-
neither gives way, and by the slow of dusk
both wear the pale scar of the other's no.
tercet
Wordplay
- My new shoes and I had a falling out. Now it's a real chafe to be around them.
What it teaches
Constant friction wears down even what it cannot break; remove the rub before it leaves a scar.
Quick facts
What does CHAFE mean?
To make sore by rubbing, or to feel or cause irritation and impatience.
Is CHAFE a valid word?
Yes — CHAFE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is CHAFE?
CHAFE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does CHAFE come from?
From Old French 'chaufer' ('to heat, warm'), from Vulgar Latin 'calefare', from Latin 'calefacere' ('to make warm'); the meaning shifted from 'warm by rubbing' to 'rub raw'.
What can CHAFE teach us?
Constant friction wears down even what it cannot break; remove the rub before it leaves a scar.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.