waft
to carry lightly and smoothly through the air or over water: The gentle breeze wafted the sound of music to our ears.
to send or convey lightly, as if in flight: The actress wafted kisses to her admirers in the audience.
Obsolete. to signal to, summon, or direct by waving.
to float or be carried, especially through the air: The sound wafted on the breeze. The music wafted across the lake.
a sound, odor, etc., faintly perceived: a waft of perfume.
a wafting movement; light current or gust: a waft of air.
the act of wafting.
Also waif. Nautical. a signal given by waving a flag.
Origin of waft
1Other words from waft
- wafter, noun
- un·waft·ed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use waft in a sentence
You walk in, or you talk to people, and you can just feel it wafting around you, warm and comforting.
Can the Cleveland Clinic Save American Health Care? | Megan McArdle | February 26, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThe words seemed to just hang in the air, wafting on bitter irony.
Hurricane Sandy Victim Jacob Vogelman’s Mother Remembers His Life | Michael Daly | November 1, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTEnthusiasm is difficult to manufacture when the stink of failure is wafting through the air.
Media Reactions to Newsweek’s Niall Ferguson-Obama Cover Story | Kevin Fallon | August 21, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTIt is best heard wafting from a jukebox or over a glass of whiskey.
Does Obama expect Hamid Karzai to surge toward Kandahar in 2011, wafting on doves of peace?
The air was keen and scented, wafting the smell of the wooded islands that hung about us in the darkening air.
Three More John Silence Stories | Algernon BlackwoodA roll of a drum and the skirl of a fife came wafting across the valley on the April breeze.
Private Peat | Harold R. PeatGood heavens, Michael, what Piccadilly breezes are you wafting into my respectable and sacerdotal apartment?
Sinister Street, vol. 1 | Compton MackenzieAnd the sailing ships, as if cut out of frailest pearl translucency, were wafting away towards Naples.
Sea and Sardinia | D. H. LawrenceI asked, as a delicious breeze from the buffet came wafting by "like a steam of rich distilled perfumes."
In the Days of My Youth | Amelia Ann Blandford Edwards
British Dictionary definitions for waft
/ (wɑːft, wɒft) /
to carry or be carried gently on or as if on the air or water
the act or an instance of wafting
something, such as a scent, carried on the air
a wafting motion
Also called: waif nautical (formerly) a signal flag hoisted furled to signify various messages depending on where it was flown
Origin of waft
1Derived forms of waft
- waftage, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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