waif
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /weɪf/
rhymes: -eɪf
Forms: form: waifs
Etymology: The noun is derived from Late Middle English weif (“ownerless property subject to seizure and forfeiture; the right of such seizure and forfeiture; revenues obtained from such seizure and forfeiture”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman waif, weif [and other forms] (compare Anglo-Latin waivum [and other forms], Medieval Latin waivium), possibly from Old French waif, a variant of gaif, gayf (“property that is lost and unclaimed; of property: lost and unclaimed”) (Norman) [and other forms], probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse veif (“flag; waving thing”), from Proto-Germanic *waif-, from Proto-Indo-European *weyp- (“to oscillate, swing”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: waifs and strays
topics: law
glosses: 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.
glosses: Something found, especially if without an owner; something which comes along, as it were, by chance.
examples: text: 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?
ref: 1624, John Donne, “13. Prayer”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 329:
text: Tenderly Kala nursed her little waif, wondering silently why it did not gain strength and agility as did the little apes of other mothers. It was nearly a year from the time the little fellow came into her possession before he would walk alone, and as for climbing—my, but how stupid he was!
ref: 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “The White Ape”, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →OCLC, page 55:
text: Only an old woman, bloated, disheveled and bleared. / Far-wandered waif of other days, / Huddles for sleep in a doorway, / Homeless.
ref: 1916 April, Carl Sandburg, “Old Woman”, in Chicago Poems, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 168:
synonyms: word: bum
word: casual
word: clochard
raw_tags: in France
word: derelict
word: dero
word: down-and-out
word: down-and-outer
word: drifter
word: epithite
word: floater
word: gadling
word: hobo
word: Jack out of doors
word: knight of the road
word: landleaper
word: landloper
word: landlouper
word: nomad
word: paker
word: palliard
word: pike
word: piker
word: ranger
word: rogue
word: rolling stone
word: rough sleeper
word: scatterling
word: skelder
word: skell
word: stroller
word: stumblebum
word: swagman
word: swaggie
word: toerag
word: tramp
word: truant
word: vagabond
word: vagrant
word: wanderer
word: waif
word: yagger
glosses: A person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support; also, a person excluded from society; an outcast.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2021, Megan Nolan, Acts of Desperation, Random House, →ISBN:
synonyms: word: thin person
antonyms: word: thin person
glosses: A very thin person.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: A plant introduced in a place outside its native range but not persistently naturalized.
Derived terms: waifish
waifishly
waifishness
waiflike
Related terms: waive