Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Merchandise; wares; goods; traffic.
  • noun Bargaining; haggling in buying and selling.
  • noun One who employs chaff or light raillery.
  • To buy or sell; trade or deal in.
  • To exchange; bandy.
  • To talk much and idly; chatter: as, “the chaffering sparrow,”
  • noun Same as chafer, 4.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Bargaining; merchandise.
  • noun One who chaffs.
  • intransitive verb To treat or dispute about a purchase; to bargain; to haggle or higgle; to negotiate.
  • intransitive verb To talk much and idly; to chatter.
  • transitive verb To buy or sell; to trade in.
  • transitive verb To exchange; to bandy, as words.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun agriculture The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed
  • verb intransitive To haggle or barter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb wrangle (over a price, terms of an agreement, etc.)
  • verb talk socially without exchanging too much information

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of cheap and fare.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From chaff +‎ -er

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Examples

  • As the "chaffer" shuffled off, Buck Bradley began to hum:

    The Border Boys Across the Frontier John Henry Goldfrap 1898

  • I scattered my gold lavishly, nor did I chaffer over prices in mart or exchange.

    The Dignity of Dollars 2010

  • We do not bargain and chaffer over our feelings, Hester and I.

    The Kempton-Wace Letters 2010

  • Twinkling chaffer/roarers followed behind them, quickly surpassing the pillars as they raced into the starfield.

    Jason Stoddard, Strange and Happy » Blog Archive » Eternal Franchise, 15.1 of 31.1 2009

  • Thinkest thou to chaffer with Him, who formed the earth, and spread out the heavens, or that thou canst offer aught of homage or devotion that can be worth acceptance in his eyes?

    Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

  • Ali Shar, “Begone, without more chaffer and chatter; there is nothing in the house.”

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • But now she had done her chaffer, and was looking about her as if to note the folk for her disport; but when she came across a child, whether it were borne in arms or led by its kinswomen, or were going alone, as were some, she seemed more heedful of it, and eyed it more closely than aught else.

    The Water of the Wondrous Isles 2007

  • Pasgen allowed himself to be divested of three of the amulets he had marked because to fail to chaffer would also mark him as unusual; however, he was growing impatient and finally made as if to throw down the amulets he was holding and walk away.

    Ill Met By Moonlight Lackey, Mercedes 2005

  • Thus, when the duke of Norfolk presented King Henry's case to her, Anne hardly resisted at all; indeed, she did little more than to chaffer for the best possible bargain she could extract from the king.

    Ill Met By Moonlight Lackey, Mercedes 2005

  • In the whole course of my life I never came across so mean a scoundrel; and now you chaffer with me as to whether or no you shall criminate yourself!

    Castle Richmond 2004

Comments

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  • "That afternoon Stafford was fitted out with a safari suit in less than an hour in one of the Indian shops near the market. Nair did the chaffering and brought the price down to remarkably low level."

    - 'Windfall', Desmond Bagley.

    January 6, 2008