Elfin

Quick meaning: Elfin is a noun meaning An elf; an inhabitant of fairy-land.

Meaning

An elf; an inhabitant of fairy-land.

More Meanings

1. A little urchin or child.
2. Any of the butterflies in the subgenus Incisalia of the North American lycaenid genus Callophrys.
3. Of or relating to elves.
4. Resembling an elf or elves, especially in tiny size or features.

Example Sentences

Nhung Ngo had nearly the shortest legs at Site-43. She was one of the shortest members of staff, though seven inches above beneath the positively elfin Delfina Ibanez, and yet Lillian found her inexplicably difficult to shake.

She was one of those elfin, rather precocious little girls, quick coloured, with dark hair, naturally curling dusky hair that was sometimes astray over her eyes, and eyes that were sometimes impishly dark, and sometimes a clear brown yellow.

Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

It was quite an expedition that Ida met, a kind of elfin's rout it looked in the moonlight, children and animals and a fairy-like presence with a face like a moon-lily, all scampering and squealing and whoofing and miauling in a merry game they were making of their progress.

Word Forms

• elfins

Synonyms for elfin

Depending on context, synonyms include playful, little, supernatural, small, fey, elflike.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include elvish, elfish, elflike, supernatural, little, playful.

Related Dictionary Tools