chauffer

[chaw-fer]

noun

a small, portable stove.

Origin of chauffer

1815–25; variant of obsolete chafer, Middle English chafer (see chafe, -er¹), probably influenced by + French chauffoir heater

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for chauffer

Historical Examples of chauffer

My chauffer cranked up the car and I took my place at the wheel.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar
Maurice Leblanc
Chauffer, chaw′fėr, n. a metal box for holding fire, a portable furnace or stove.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D)
Various
The combustion tube with its charge is next placed in a furnace or chauffer of thin sheet iron (see middle figure above).
Cooley's Practical Receipts, Volume II
Arnold Cooley
The officer sat up beside the chauffer, Clayton slinging it into him every foot of the way to the station.
Watch Yourself Go By
Al. G. Field
Clayton and Alfred were liberated, loaded into an auto, the chauffer ordered to drive slowly to the Work House.
Watch Yourself Go By
Al. G. Field

British Dictionary definitions for chauffer

chauffer

chaufer

noun

a small portable heater or stove

Word Origin for chauffer

C19: from French chauffoir, from chauffer to heat

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for chauffer

"small portable stove," 1825, variant of chafer "a vessel for heating," agent noun from chafe; form influenced by French chauffoir "a heater," from chauffer "to heat," which also is ultimately from chafe (see chauffeur).