CHAFED Synonyms: 144 Similar and Opposite Words

chafed

verb

Definition of chafed next

past tense of chafe

as in irritated

to make sore by continued rubbing ill-fitting boots that had badly chafed my heels

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

as in eroded

to damage or diminish by continued friction constant stepping on a rope will gradually chafe it, rendering it unsafe for rock climbing

Synonyms & Similar Words

as in annoyed

to disturb the peace of mind of (someone) especially by repeated disagreeable acts nothing chafes us so much as those telemarketers who call during the dinner hour

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of chafed But the announcement April 28 that the United Arab Emirates was leaving OPEC caps years of tension where the desert state chafed under the cartel’s quotas, and recently, encountered severe strain in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, the group’s most potent force by far. —

Shawn Tully, Fortune, 29 Apr. 2026 Local officials have often chafed at state leaders’ willingness to impose themselves on the city, whether on police control, guns or housing rules. —

Kacen Bayless, Kansas City Star, 9 Apr. 2026 Perhaps Fogel, a fervent leftist, chafed at having to celebrate the family, that bourgeois institution. —

Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 9 Apr. 2026 After Musk’s departure, Amodei and other researchers chafed against the leadership of Brockman, whom some considered an abrasive operator, and of Sutskever, who was generally viewed as principled but disorganized. —

Ronan Farrow, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2026 Some have also chafed at the increasing symbiosis between the paper and WBFF. —

Max Tani, semafor.com, 6 Apr. 2026 Others chafed at pre-empting local rules. —

Mark Dee march 28, Idaho Statesman, 28 Mar. 2026 Those Cubs teams were full of veterans who often chafed at Lou Piniella’s old-school managing ways but won anyway, at least until the postseason. —

Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 13 Mar. 2026 Council members have long chafed at their exclusion from an intergovernmental agreement between the city and MARTA that dictates how decisions are made within the More MARTA program established by voters in a 2016 referendum. —

Sara Gregory, AJC.com, 26 Feb. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for chafed

Verb

Some highbrow writers had a right to be irritated by the concept of chick lit, though that wasn’t the fault of chick lit authors themselves.

— Hillary Busis, Vanity Fair, 4 May 2026
His last-minute, mixmaster approach to closing out the transit negotiations irritated several participants, but the end result was a fiscally responsible and transformative restructuring of mass transit in northern Illinois.

— David Greising, Chicago Tribune, 24 Apr. 2026