Chafe 是個動詞，意為「(使) 擦痛；(使) 擦傷；(使) 擦破」(因摩擦而使身體部位疼痛，發紅，腫脹之意 － 及物和不及物)，如 Her new shoes chafed her ankles. (新鞋把她的腳踝磨得紅腫/破皮)；The high collar had been chafing against my neck. (高高的領口把我的脖子磨痛了)；此外，chafe 亦意為「惱怒，焦躁」(不及物)，通常與介系詞 at 或 under 連用，如 Sam was chafed because he was not allowed out. (山姆很惱怒，因為他不許外出)；Most students are chafing at/under the new restrictions. (大多數學生都對這些新的限制感到非常惱怒)。
Chaff 主要用作名詞 (它的動詞用法已過時)，意為「粗糠；穀物的外殼」、「(作飼料用的) 乾草，草料，秣」及「瑣事；微不足道或沒有甚麼價值的事物」，如 Gary fed chaff to his cattle. (蓋瑞餵他的牛隻吃草料)；You had better ignore the picky criticisms because they were just a lot of chaff. (你最好不要理會那些吹毛求疵的批評，因為它們都只是微不足道的小事)。Chaff 經常用於 ” to separate the wheat from the chaff ” 這個比喻性成語中，意為「分清好壞；區分優劣 (to separate the superior from the inferior)」，如 The CEO is in the hope that the new procedure for evaluating employees can separate the wheat from the chaff. (執行長希望新的員工評鑑程序能區分出優劣)。