waft
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: wŏft
ipa: /wɑft/
ipa: /wɒft/
ipa: /wɔft/
ipa: /wɑːft/
ipa: /wæft/
rhymes: -ɒft
Forms: form: wafts
form: wafting
form: wafted
form: wafted
form: wheft
Etymology: From Middle English waften, of uncertain origin. Possibly from unattested Old English *wafettan, from wafian (“to wave”) + -ettan, or perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch wachten (“to guard, provide for”).
See also German wabern (“to waft”), Faroese veiftra (“to wave”) and Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”).
Senses: examples: text: A breeze came in through the open window and wafted her sensuous perfume into my eager nostrils.
text: I will sing of stately Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful, whose dominion is the walled cities of all sea-set Cyprus. There the moist breath of the western wind wafted her over the waves of the loud-moaning sea in soft foam, and there the gold-filleted Hours welcomed her joyously.
ref: 1914, Hesiod, “To Aphrodite”, in Hugh G. Evelyn-White, transl., The Homeric Hymns and Homerica (Loeb Classical Library; 57), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Through the open window of the church the fragrant incense was wafted and with it the fragrant names of her who was conceived without stain of original sin […]
ref: 1922, James Joyce, chapter 13, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, →OCLC:
text: The experiment was abandoned when one fine day spontaneous combustion of the pulverised coal in the container occurred, and a black cloud of the very finely divided fuel rose into the air by the force of the explosion, and was slowly wafted by the prevailing breeze over the town, upon which it descended with the resemblance of black snow, but with the dissimilarity that it did not melt.
ref: 1940 May, “The Why and the Wherefore: Pulverised Fuel Experiment”, in Railway Magazine, page 318:
text: Dele Alli, playing with a peacock-like spread of feathers, wafted one chance over an exposed net for a miss that was completely out of place with the rest of his display.
ref: 2016 March 27, Daniel Taylor, “Eric Dier seals England’s stunning comeback against Germany”, in The Guardian, London:
synonyms: breathe
glosses: To (cause to) float easily or gently through the air.
examples: text: Unhappy Aureng-Zebe is in disgrace; / And your Morat, proclaimed the successor, / Is called, to awe the city with his power. / Those trumpets his triumphant entry tell, / And now the shouts waft near the citadel.
ref: 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe, London: [s.n.], OCLC 497010563, Act III, scene i; republished as “Aureng-Zebe, a Tragedy”, in Walter Scott, editor, The Works of John Dryden, now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes. Illustrated with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author, by Walter Scott, Esq., volume V, London: Printed for William Miller, Albemarle Street, by James Ballantyne and Co. Edinburgh, 1808, OCLC 317070632, page 226
glosses: To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float.
examples: text: […] but ſoft: who wafts vs yonder.
ref: c. 1594, William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act II, scene iv, page 89:
glosses: To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon.
Derived terms: waft off
waft over