Meaning & use
trafe
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparablereligioninformal
Not allowed by Jewish dietary law; not kosher.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after a linking verb: trafe food, or the meat is trafe.
Patterns
- trafe food
- something is trafe
- keep something trafe
The restaurant serves pork, so everything on the menu is trafe.
She grew up in a home where trafe food was never brought through the door.
He checked the label twice because he did not want to serve trafe meat to his guests.
noununcountablereligioninformal
Food that Jewish law does not permit people to eat.
Grammar: No plural and no article: they never ate trafe, not 'a trafe'.
Patterns
- eat trafe
- a shop that sells trafe
- avoid trafe
The family kept kosher and never touched trafe.
In that neighborhood you can buy trafe at the corner store on Saturdays.
Common combinations
- trafe food
- Trafe food was kept out of the kitchen entirely.
- trafe meat
- The butcher sold only kosher cuts, never trafe meat.
- keep trafe out of something
- They kept trafe out of the house for religious reasons.
- not kosher
- Anything cooked with butter and beef together is not kosher.
Synonyms and how they differ
- non-kosher
- This is the plain, neutral term used in general English; trafe is warmer and more colloquial and belongs mostly to Jewish speech.
- unkosher
- A rarer, more formal-sounding word with the same meaning; trafe is the everyday Yiddish-derived choice.
Opposites
Word family
- treyf adjective
- A common alternate spelling of the same word, often used in writing about kashrut.
- kashrut noun
- The set of Jewish dietary rules that decide whether food is kosher or trafe.
Commonly confused: trafe or kosher? trafe or tref?
trafe vs kosher
Kosher means the food is allowed; trafe means it is forbidden. They are opposites, so do not use them interchangeably.
trafe vs tref
A different spelling of the same word, not a different meaning; treyf is the form you will see most often.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'trafe' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Trafe' describes food that Jewish law forbids, so it fits the sentence about cheese made with animal rennet. The other options treat it as a verb or as a word for an utensil, but it is only an adjective (and, less often, a noun for forbidden food).
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “trafe”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.