Word.ws English Dictionary

chafed

chafed is the simple past and past participle of chafe.

Meaning of chafe

Verb

chafe (third-person singular simple present chafes, present participle chafing, simple past and past participle chafed)

  1. (transitive) To excite heat in by friction; to rub in order to stimulate and make warm.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To excite passion or anger in; to fret; to irritate.
  3. (transitive) To fret and wear by rubbing.
    • to chafe a cable
  4. (intransitive) To rub; to come together so as to wear by rubbing; to wear by friction.
    • the troubled Tiber chafing with her shores1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  5. (intransitive) To be worn by rubbing.
    • A cable chafes.
  6. (figuratively, intransitive) To have a feeling of vexation; to be vexed; to fret; to be irritated.
    • He will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

See all 9 meanings of chafe

Words formed from chafed

Phrases with chafed

Questions about chafed

What is chafed the simple past and past participle of?
Chafed is the simple past and past participle of chafe.

Words near chafed in the dictionary

  1. chaetothyrialeans
  2. chaetoviridin
  3. chafage
  4. chafe
  5. chafe at the bit
  6. chafed
  7. chafed at the bit
  8. chafen
  9. chafened
  10. chafening
  11. chafens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chafed (page history and authors); chafe (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “chafed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chafed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.