Literary notes about Chaff (AI summary)
Writers employ "chaff" both in a literal sense to denote the husks and waste separated from valuable grain—and in a highly metaphorical manner to symbolize that which is worthless or expendable. In some works, it appears in descriptions of agricultural or mechanical processes, such as coffee grinding or threshing, emphasizing the removal of impurities to reveal what is valuable [1, 2, 3]. In other instances, "chaff" serves as a vehicle for satirical commentary or playful mockery, where characters are teased or scorned as being no more than refuse amid more substantial elements [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, the phrase "like chaff before the wind" recurs as a vivid image to portray dispersion and insignificance in the face of overwhelming forces [7, 8, 9].
- Some types of grinding machines have chaff-removing attachments to remove, by air suction, the chaff from the coffee as it is being ground.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - Inside the smaller one is an exhaust pipe which draws the heat and chaff out of the coffee.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - In 1920, he was granted a United States patent on an improved process of twice cutting coffee and removing the chaff after each cutting.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - The king likes the treachery, but not the traitor, 239 The king of the bees has no sting, 290 The king’s chaff is better than other folk’s corn,
— from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs - I fear you may possibly have to submit to a certain amount of good-natured chaff, but nothing more.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse - If she likes a person she will pitch into him, and chaff him.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
— from The Bible, King James version, Book 18: Job by Anonymous - When the flood cometh it sweepeth away grain as well as chaff.
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle - They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete