Also dial. keave, keeave. Obs. and dial. form of CHAVE, to separate chaff and empty ears from the corn.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 996. A place high, plain and pure When nede is therto cave upon thi corne.
1530. Palsgr., 479. I cave corne, Jescoux le grain.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 323. To Cave, or Chave, is with a large Rake, or such like Instrument, to divide the greater from the lesser; as the larger Chaff from the Corn or smaller Chaff. Also larger coals from the lesser.
1855. Whitby Gloss., To Keave, to rake the short straws and ears from wheat on the barn floor.
Hence Caving vbl. sb., the action of separating the chaff, etc., from corn; cavings, the chaff or ears thus separated. Comb. caving-rake, -riddle.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks., 121. They [young trees] will serve for flayle-hande-staffes, cavinge-rake-shaftes … and such other like uses.
1807. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 298. The short chaffy substance thus separated, is in some districts termed cavings.
1865. Cornh. Mag., July, 33. In the Midland districts, ears of corn when thrashed are … ‘cavvins.’
1877. E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cavings, refuse bits of straw and dirt mixed with small corn, after threshing. Caving-rake, a rake used for separating the long bits of straw from corn before dressing. Caving-riddle, a riddle used after threshing for separating the corn from the bits of short straw which have come down the machine with it.
