Obs. exc. north. dial. In 5 schaft, 9 dial. chaff. [a. ON. *kjǫft- (in Icel. kjǫptr, kjaptr, Sw. käft (pronounced chäft) jaw, Da. kieft (chops), answering to a Gothic type *kiftus, OTeut. *keftu-z, possibly from a stem *kef- *kaf- ‘to make a chewing movement with the under jaw,’ whence also OE. ceafl, ME. chavel JOWL, and various cognate words in Ger. and Du.]
1. The jaw, chap; usually in pl. (Chiefly north., and since 17th c. only dial.)
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7510 (Cott.). A bere, a leon, bath i mete … And scok þam be þe berdes sua Þat i þair chafftes [other MSS. chauelis, chaulis, chaules] raue in tua.
c. 1420. Anturs Arth., xi. Off the schaft & the shol shaturt to the shin.
1483. Cath. Angl., 57. A Chafte, maxilla.
1535. Coverdale, Job xxix. 17. I brake the chaftes of ye vnrighteous. Ibid., xl. 12. Canst thou … bore his chaftes thorow with an aule?
1558. Q. Kennedy, Compend. Tract., in Misc. Wodr. Soc. (1844), 160. To cry out with oppin chaftes.
1597. Lowe, Chirurg. (1634), 195. Debility of the nerues which moveth the chaftes.
1686. G. Stuart, Joco-Ser. Disc., 64. As slyly as thy faus Chafts waggs.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., x. ‘Like to gaunt our chafts aff.’
1864. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., Chafts or Chaffs, the jaws. ‘Chaffs tied up,’ dead.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Chaffs (N. Lanc.), Chuffs (s. Lanc.), jaw bones.
2. Comb., as chaft-blade, -bone; chaft-fallen adj.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1073. Wit þe chafte ban or a ded has … slan he was.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lvii[i]. 6. Smyte the chaft bones of the lyons whelpes.
1597. Lowe, Chirurg. (1634), 140. Underneath the chaft-blade.
1863. Atkinson, Danby Provinc., N. Riding Yorksh., Chaff-bone, the jaw-bone.
