waif

American  

[weyf] / weɪf /

noun

1. a person, especially a child, who has no home or friends.

2. something found, especially a stray animal, whose owner is not known.

3. a very thin, often small person, usually a young woman.

4. a stray item or article.

   to gather waifs of gossip.

5. Nautical. waft.

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waif British  

/ weɪf /

noun

1. a person, esp a child, who is homeless, friendless, or neglected

2. anything found and not claimed, the owner being unknown

3. nautical another name for waft

4. obsolete law a stolen article thrown away by a thief in his flight and forfeited to the Crown or to the lord of the manor

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Other Word Forms

• waiflike adjective

Etymology

Origin of waif

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, originally “lost, stray (animal), unclaimed (property)” (compare Old French guaif “stray beast”), from Scandinavian; compare Old Norse veif “movement to and fro, something waving, flag”; waive

Example Sentences

In a meticulously crafted stop-motion world of gritty dockside poverty, a starving waif discovers the neglected girl in a shabby home weeps not teardrops but pearls.

From Los Angeles Times

The day after she and her husband, Jack, sculpt the figure of a child out of snow, an ethereal waif emerges from the wilderness.

From The Wall Street Journal

“You are the waif’s last relation in the world. Without you, the child is destined to a most piteous life in the orphan asylum.”

From Literature

And with all this talk of hanging, how could she dream of accusing a poor waif of a child, who likely had no one to teach him right from wrong to begin with?

From Literature

America crumbles and she takes to the road, collecting waifs and strays and founding a utopian community in rural Oregon.

From Salon