
chaff
词源
源自古英语'ceaf',与荷兰语'kaf'和德语'Kaff'同源,最初指谷物的外壳部分。
noun
❶ 谷壳或秸秆等农作物的外壳部分,通常指收割后剩下的无用部分。
“The farmers separated the wheat from the chaff.”
(农民们把小麦和谷壳分开。)
“After threshing, the chaff was blown away by the wind.”
(脱粒后,谷壳被风吹走了。)
❶ 比喻无价值或无关紧要的东西,常与重要的东西形成对比。
“You need to separate the chaff from the wheat in this report.”
(你需要在这份报告中区分出有价值和无价值的内容。)
“His argument contained a lot of chaff and little substance.”
(他的论点中废话很多,实质内容很少。)
verb
❶ 开玩笑地戏弄或取笑某人,通常以友好的方式。
“The teammates chaffed him about his new haircut.”
(队友们拿他的新发型开玩笑。)
“They spent the evening chaffing each other good-naturedly.”
(他们整晚都在善意地互相开玩笑。)
常见短语
separate the wheat from the chaff — 区分有价值和无价值的东西,从大量信息中筛选出重要的部分。
“In the interview process, we need to separate the wheat from the chaff to find the best candidates.”
(在面试过程中,我们需要筛选出最好的候选人。)