chaffer
/ˈtʃafə
/verb [no object]
Haggle about the terms of an agreement or price of something: I chaffered in the bazaars for objects I wanted...
- The U. S. State Department last week was chaffering with the French government on this matter.
- He had bought him in Sydney from a sailor for eighteen shillings and chaffered an hour over the bargain.
- He was choosing from my videoarchive the pieces he wanted to show, discussed with the visitors and chaffered with them.
noun [mass noun] archaic
Haggling about the price of something.Kojima Productions indirectly answered all of this chaffering by giving players the ability to choose....
- There was its corn market down the main street, with hum of chaffering over open sacks.
- The liberal theory of the state, hostile to princes, rejects the princes’ greed for lands and chaffering in lands.
Derivatives
chafferer
- He turned in an instant from an outraged gentleman to an anxious chafferer recommending his goods.
- Now, with the poverty of a Christian, Gregory is immersed in the bustle of a chafferer.
- On the further side were the venders and chafferers, - old women under awnings and big umbrellas, rickety tables piled high with fruit, white caps and brown faces, blouses, sabots, donkeys.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'trade or trading'): from Old English cēap 'a bargain' + faru 'journey'; probably influenced by Old Norse kaupfǫr.