Dictionary

chafen en · VERB

Etymology

From chafe + -en.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To make chafed
   • Faith, picturing to its view this cross, the Holy Spirit engraving it on the heart in spiritual regeneration, the whole soul receiving him whom it lifts up, as its "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption," gently and effectually transforms the spirit, that was chafened and restless, into the "meekness and gentleness of Christ." 1854, William Bacon Stevens, The Bow in the Cloud, page 152:
   • In a case of the head being hung back a little on one side, the shoulder should be lifted up by pressing it (with the hand) after chafening it, so as to bring the head at the door of the passage and the child should be drawn straight downward. 1963, Suśruta, Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (Kaviraj), An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, page 471:
   • And while this was being accomplished, Time was healing all chafened surfaces and rounding off all rough and broken edges with his slow but unfailing tools […] 1908, Mount Houmas, A Strange Record, page 112:
   • Tush, tush, it avails nought to chafen, or to chide, […] 1874, William Carew Hazlitt, A Select Collection of Old English Plays, volume 3, page 39:

Forms