Waif

Quick meaning: Waif is a noun meaning Something found, especially if without an owner; something which comes along, as it were, by chance.

Meaning

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

More Meanings

1. A person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support; also, a person excluded from society; an outcast.
2. A very thin person, especially a young one.
3. A plant introduced in a place outside its native range but not persistently naturalized.
4. (transitive) To cast aside or reject, and thus make a waif.
5. (nautical, chiefly whaling, historical) A small flag used as a signal.
6. Something (such as clouds or smoke) carried aloft by the wind.
7. (British, law, archaic) 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.

Example Sentences

waifs and strays

Only an old woman, bloated, disheveled and bleared. / Far-wandered waif of other days, / Huddles for sleep in a doorway, / Homeless.

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.

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?

Word Forms

• waifs
• waifing
• waifed

Synonyms for waif

Depending on context, synonyms include stiff, casual, clochard, derelict, dero, down-and-out.

Antonyms for waif

Common opposites include butterball, chubbs, chubster, chunker, elephant, fat.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include strayling, walker, waysider, wane, wastrel, straggler.

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