Chaff

1. n. The scales or bracts on the receptacle, which subtend each flower in the heads of many Compositae, as the sunflower.
2. n. The glumes or husks of grains and grasses separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing, etc.
3. n. Anything of a comparatively light and worthless character; the refuse part of anything.
4. n. Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
5. n. Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.