the outer layer of the seeds of grain such as wheat, which is separated from the grain before it is eaten 谷壳；糠 straw (= dried stems of wheat) and hay (= dried grass) cut up as food for cows （作为牛饲料的）麦秸，干草
Word Originnoun Old English cæf, ceaf, probably from a Germanic base meaning ‘gnaw’; related to Dutch kaf.
Idioms
sort out/separate the wheat from the chaff
to recognize the difference between useful or valuable people or things and those that are not useful or have no value 识别优劣；分清好坏；去芜存菁 We sifted through the application forms to separate the wheat from the chaff. 我们仔细检查了申请表，把小麦和谷壳分开。