chafe

(redirected from chafes)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia.
Related to chafes: irritatedly
Like this video? Subscribe to our free daily email and get a new idiom video every day!

be chafing at the bit

To be impatient and/or eager for something to happen or over some delay. Used to liken someone to an overexcited horse straining against its bit (the metal piece of the harness that fits between its jaws). I was chafing at the bit for the game to start. After two hours of waiting in the airport lobby, we were chafing at the bit to finally get on the plane.
See also: bit, chafe

chafe at (something)

To feel or express annoyance in response to something. Bruce chafed at the idea that the new hire he was training made more money than him. You could tell he was chafing at the reporter's questions, but he still declined to comment.
See also: chafe

chafe at the bit

To be impatient and/or eager for something to happen or over some delay. Used to liken someone to an overexcited horse straining against its bit (the metal piece of the harness that fits between its jaws). The crowd chafed at the bit to see the unveiling of the new building. I've chafed at the bit for an opportunity like this my entire life!
See also: bit, chafe
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

chafe at something

Fig. to be irritated or annoyed at something. Jane chafed at the criticism for a long time afterward. Jerry chafed for a while at what Ken had said.
See also: chafe
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
See also:
References in periodicals archive ?
A horse of a different color chafes at the bit in Win Place Show.
Jason Meadows: Marc Foxx. (Reviews: Los Angeles)
In 1807, Sharpe, promoted to second lieutenant, chafes nevertheless because he is assigned quartermaster chores while his regiment goes off to battle.
Sharpe's Prey
But McGill chafes at the idea that time is a line at all, and, refusing to toe that line, he scribbles Munchlike emanations that seem to erupt off the page.
Dominic McGill. (Reviews)
Their restless inventiveness revels in narration but chafes at the restrictions and inevitabilities of linear plotting; superb storytellers, they often seem to tell a story to death, as if to demonstrate that it really wasn't about anything at all.
O BROTHERS, WHERE ART THOU?
Here, Rui Chafes's sculpture was displayed in three quite different spaces: one outside a traditional museum space, the Coleccao Berardo, which houses a collection of twentieth-century art; outdoors, as well, at the Parque da Pena, an enormous garden with ponds and man-made grottoes where the sculptures were placed in direct relation to the landscape's natural and artificial elements alike; and, finally, the interior spaces of the Palacio da Pena, created (as was the park) in the second half of the nineteenth century by a prince consort of German origin, married to Maria II of Portugal and an enthusiast of romantic and esoteric ideas.
SINTRA MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA COLECCAO BERARDO/PALACIO NACIONAL DA PENA/PARQUE DA PENA
The former shows the work of sculptors such as Jose Pedro Croft and Rui Chafes, as well as the ironic critique of art-world fashions that comprises Ana Jotta's work; while the latter represents Paulo Feliciano, Paulo Mendes, and Joao Louro, whose explorations of the connections between high and low - integrate pop music, comic strips, and graphic design - and frequently offer a political critique.
Border crossing
Idioms browser ?
Full browser ?