chafe
verb/tʃeɪf/
/tʃeɪf/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they chafe | /tʃeɪf/ /tʃeɪf/ |
| he / she / it chafes | /tʃeɪfs/ /tʃeɪfs/ |
| past simple chafed | /tʃeɪft/ /tʃeɪft/ |
| past participle chafed | /tʃeɪft/ /tʃeɪft/ |
| -ing form chafing | /ˈtʃeɪfɪŋ/ /ˈtʃeɪfɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive, transitive] if skin chafes, or if something chafes it, it becomes painful because the thing is rubbing against it
- Her wrists chafed where the rope had been.
- chafe something The collar was far too tight and chafed her neck.
Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
- [intransitive] chafe (at/under something) (formal) to feel annoyed and impatient about something, especially because it limits what you can do
- He soon chafed at the restrictions of his situation.
- Young people often go through a phase of chafing under parental control.
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘make warm’): from Old French chaufer ‘make hot’, based on Latin calefacere, from calere ‘be hot’ + facere ‘make’.
Check pronunciation:
chafe