Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jolly, bantering, light-hearted.

1850		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 22 Sept. 5/4: Muster Bill was ther only one of em as did seem at all chaffy; but he know’d ther oss better nor they, and wornt afeerd like his owner, who’s a terrible nervous chap.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 18: chaffey. Boisterous; happy; jolly.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 24: Jack is very daring, cheeky, chaffy.
1870		Dly Teleg. 2 June 2/2: The travellers were all chatty, many of them chaffy.
1888		R. Barnett Police Sergeant C 21 72: I’m a bit chaffy, I know – it’s my stupid way, but I’m not a bad chap.
1890		Sporting Times 15 Feb. 5/1: Then a chaffy description of the dress of the Lords’ Commissioners.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 213: chaffy, full of banter. ‘I don’t enjoy reading chaffy stories.’.
1948		P. Kavanagh Tarry Flynn (1965) 256: To be paying bills of laughter / And chaffy gossip in kind.