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waif

noun
/weɪf/US

Etymology

Origin unknown; possibly related to the following words: * waff (“waving movement; gust or puff of air or wind; odour, scent; slight blow; slight attack of illness; glimpse; apparition, wraith; of the wind: to cause (something) to move to and fro; to flutter or wave to and fro in the wind; to produce a current of air by waving, to fan”) (Northern England, Scotland), a variant of waive (etymology 2) or wave (see further at those entries). * Middle English wef, weffe (“bad odour, stench, stink; exhalation; vapour; tendency of something to go bad (?)”) [and other forms], possibly a variant of either: ** waf, waif, waife (“odour, scent”), possibly from waven (“to move to and fro, sway, wave; to stray, wander; to move in a weaving manner; (figuratively) to hesitate, vacillate”), from Old English wafian (“to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”); or ** wef (“a blow, stroke”), from weven (“to travel, wander; to move to and fro, flutter, waver; to blow something away, waft; to cause something to move; to fall; to cut deeply; to sever; to give up, yield; to give deference to; to avoid; to afflict, trouble; to beckon, signal”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old English wefan (“to weave”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”)), or from wǣfan (see bewǣfan, ymbwǣfan).

  1. derived from *weyp-✻ — “to oscillate, swing”
  2. derived from *waif-✻
  3. derived from veif — “flag; waving thing”
  4. derived from waif
  5. derived from waif
  6. inherited from weif — “ownerless property subject to seizure and forfeiture; the right of such seizure and forfeiture; revenues obtained from such seizure and forfeiture”

Definitions

  1. An article of movable property which has been found, and of which the owner is not known,…

    An article of movable property which has been found, and of which the owner is not known, such as goods washed up on a beach or thrown away by an absconding thief; such items belong to the Crown, which may grant the right of ownership to them to a lord of a manor.

    • waifs and strays

  2. Something found, especially if without an owner

    Something found, especially if without an owner; something which comes along, as it were, by chance.

  3. A person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support

    A person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support; also, a person excluded from society; an outcast.

    • But vvhat a vvretched, and diſconſolate Hermitage is that Houſe, vvhich is not viſited by thee [God], and vvhat a VVayue, and Stray is that Man, that hath not thy Markes vpon him?
    • Only an old woman, bloated, disheveled and bleared. / Far-wandered waif of other days, / Huddles for sleep in a doorway, / Homeless.
  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. A very thin person, especially a young one.

      • When we had done all the things there were to do, he passed out and I clung to his reassuringly solid, soft stomach—paternal, so different to the indie waifs—and cried.

    2. A plant introduced in a place outside its native range but not persistently naturalized.

    3. To cast aside or reject, and thus make a waif.

      • It is true that Guy, Count of Ponthieu, holds fief under me, but I have no control over the laws of his realm. And by those laws, he hath right of life and death over all stranded and waifed on his coast.

    4. A small flag used as a signal.

    5. Something (such as clouds or smoke) carried aloft by the wind.

    6. A minor celebrity whose fame is unwarranted or undeserved.

The neighborhood

Derived

waifish, waifishly, waifishness, waiflike

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for waif. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA