chafe at

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
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

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.
See also:
  • chafe at (something)
  • Would it kill (someone) to (do something)?
  • What was (one) smoking?
  • final
  • here we go again
  • OMG
  • What was (one) thinking?
  • at all hours
  • at all hours (of the day and night)
References in periodicals archive
A top pick for any who regularly give gifts and chafe at traditional wrap limitations.
Gift Wrapping with Textiles: Stylish Ideas from Japan
I, too, chafe at restrictions that seem arbitrary, and I especially respect those who loved the sciences as much as the men of their times did.
A conversation with Connie Mayse: human resource manager, Comcast Cable Communications, Elyria, Ohio
Machinery exhibitors, who also chafe at the cost of shows, may be learning to use them more efficiently.
In praise of trade shows
Ordinary human beings often chafe at the boundaries imposed on us.
My vow is my bond
It hardly helps when gay conservatives pillory organizations that strive for racial parity or chafe at making alliances with other groups and their causes.
People like us
Despite his success, Fokine began to chafe at the company's stifling artistic atmosphere.
Rediscovering Michel Fokine: by challenging Russian tradition, this modernist choreographer wrestled ballet into the twentieth century
Although those of us who advocate change in universities certainly chafe at the slow pace of that change, and there is room for universities to move faster and be more responsive to community needs, there is little likelihood that those changes will bring universities to the quarter-to-quarter mentality of the business world.
Is there a future for online ed? Fathom's gone, leaving us to ask, `is anyone making money on online education?' (Viewpoint)
Meanwhile, with every suburban gun tragedy, a few more William Satires chafe at their flak jackets and look for help from the statehouse.
Off target: the biggest challenge to the NRA may not come from trial lawyers, but from demographics
As her opening move, the editor reprints Gloria Wade-Gayles's 1996 personal-is-most-definitely-political essay "Who Says an Older Woman Can't/Shouldn't Dance?", which begins with the deceptively mild observation that, "when you are fifty and over, people seem to feel the need to tell you how well you are physically wearing/weathering your age." in her inspiring, delightful dance for/of words, Wade-Gayles joyfully dares to rethink ideology and its critique by claiming of her cherished maternal identity that "I chafe at the very idea that anyone would attribute this joy to patriarchy, to sexism, to restrictions on my life." Less successful is Sue V.
Body Politics and the Fictional Double
They chafe at being lectured by bankers at vestry meetings.
President Bush And The `Faith-Based' Minefield
(The symbolism of this action is perplexing: why would women who chafe at patriarchy voluntarily engage in such domesticity?)
Feminist ecumenism and Catholics