• (RP) IPA: /ˈtʃæfə/
• (America) enPR: chăfʹər, IPA: /ˈt͡ʃæfɚ/

From Middle English chaffare, equivalent to cheap + fare.

chaffer (chaffers, present participle chaffering; simple past and past participle chaffered)

1. (intransitive) To haggle or barter.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Character of a Good Parson; Imitated from Chaucer, and Inlarg’d”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:

     To chaffer for preferment with his gold.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Alteration”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC ↗, page 25 ↗:

     Walter declined the invitation, precisely because he wanted a dinner. He was, also, conscious that he had made a very bad bargain; but how could he chaffer and dispute about things so precious as the contents of those pages which were the very outpourings of his heart?

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     But the people looked much like Caleb’s own. They wore dirty robes, chaffered at fruit stalls, spat, scratched.

2. (transitive) To buy.
3. To talk much and idly; to chatter.
   • 1922, John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga:

     The Dartie within him made him chaffer for five minutes with young Padwick concerning the favourite for the Cambridgeshire.

• bargain
• barter
• haggle
• negotiate

chaffer

1. (uncountable) bargaining; merchandise
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC ↗:

     vittels, and other chaffer and merchandize were excéeding cheape: for at London a quarter of wheat was sold for two shillings

2. (countable, slang, obsolete) A person's mouth.

   Moisten [or] damp your chaffer: take something to drink.

From chaff + -er.

chaffer (plural chaffers)

1. (agriculture) The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed
2. A person or thing which chaffs.

• German: Obersieb