the outer layer of the seeds of grain such as wheat, which is separated from the grain before it is eaten 谷殼；糠 straw (= dried stems of wheat) and hay (= dried grass) cut up as food for cows （作爲牛飼料的）麥稭，幹草
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 識别優劣；分清好壞；去蕪存菁 We sifted through the application forms to separate the wheat from the chaff. 我們仔細檢查了申請表，把小麥和谷殼分開。