wafer

[ wey-fer ]
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noun
  1. a thin, crisp cake or biscuit, often sweetened and flavored.

  2. a thin disk of unleavened bread, used in the Eucharist, as in the Roman Catholic Church.

  1. a thin disk of dried paste, gelatin, adhesive paper, or the like, used for sealing letters, attaching papers, etc.

  2. Medicine/Medical. a thin sheet of dry paste or the like, used to enclose a powder to be swallowed.

  3. any small, thin disk, as a washer or piece of insulation.

  4. Electronics. a thin slice of semiconductor used as a base material on which single transistors or integrated-circuit components are formed.

verb (used with object)
  1. to seal, close, or attach by means of a wafer or wafers: to wafer a letter.

Origin of wafer

1
1350–1400; Middle English wafre<Middle Dutch wafer, variant of wafelwaffle1

Other words from wafer

  • wa·fer·like, wa·fer·y, adjective

Words Nearby wafer

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use wafer in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for wafer

wafer

/ (ˈweɪfə) /


noun
  1. a thin crisp sweetened biscuit with different flavourings, served with ice cream, etc

  2. Christianity a thin disc of unleavened bread used in the Eucharist as celebrated by the Western Church

  1. pharmacol an envelope of rice paper enclosing a medicament

  2. electronics a large single crystal of semiconductor material, such as silicon, on which numerous integrated circuits are manufactured and then separated

  3. a small thin disc of adhesive material used to seal letters, documents, etc

verb
  1. (tr) to seal, fasten, or attach with a wafer

Origin of wafer

1
C14: from Old Northern French waufre, from Middle Low German wāfel; related to waffle 1

Derived forms of wafer

  • wafer-like or wafery, adjective

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