[var. of CHAFER (formerly chaufer), perh. with some influence of mod.F. chauffoir, f. chauffer to heat, CHAFE. Also found as CHOFFER.] A metal basket containing fire, formerly used in light-houses; a small portable furnace usually of iron, fitted with air-holes and a grate.
1833. Blackw. Mag., 359. Open coal fires, placed in open chauffers, were exhibited to the mariner.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 224. The lights consisted of coal fires in chauffers.
1871. Carlyle, in Mrs. C.’s Lett., I. 179. In a room upstairs, where a chauffer was burning against damp.
b. Comb., as chauffer-pan.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 452. The workman … carries the contents of the mortar to the first chauffer-pan, where it is heated.
