Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, archaic
Topics: law
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Something found, especially if without an owner; something which comes along, as it were, by chance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support; also, a person excluded from society; an outcast.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bum, stiff, casual, clochard, derelict, dero, down-and-out, down-and-outer, drifter, epithite, floater, gadling, hobo, Jack out of doors, knight of the road, landleaper, landloper, landlouper, nomad, paker, palliard, pike, piker, ranger, rogue, rolling stone, rough sleeper, scatterling, skelder, skell, stroller, stumblebum, swagman, swaggie, toerag, tramp, truant, vagabond, vagrant, wanderer, waif, yagger
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A very thin person, especially a young one.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: thin person
Antonyms: All are derogatory unless otherwise labeled, butterball, chubbs, chubster, chunker, chunky monkey, elephant, fat, fatfuck, fatso, fattie, fatty, fatty bom bom, fatty boombalatty, fat-ass, fatass, fat fuck, fatshit, fussock, gorbelly, hambeast, hamplanet, heffalump, landwhale, lardass, lardbucket, lardo, oinker, obeast, pig, podge, porker, pudge, roly-poly, salad dodger, swagbelly, thunder thighs, tubbalard, tubba lard, tubbo, tub of guts, tub of lard, whale
noun
A plant introduced in a place outside its native range but not persistently naturalized.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, figuratively
Topics: biology, botany, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A small flag used as a signal.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical
Qualifier: chiefly whaling
Topics: nautical, transport
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Something (such as clouds or smoke) carried by wind or water.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A minor celebrity whose fame is unwarranted or undeserved.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, informal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sublebrity
verb
To cast aside or reject, and thus make a waif.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a homeless child especially one forsaken or orphaned
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: street child
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: child, kid, youngster, minor, shaver, nipper, small fry, tiddler, tike, tyke, fry, nestling
History
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.
Possibly from Old Norse veif (“flag; waving thing”); see further at etymology 1.
Origin unknown; possibly related to the following words: * waff (“waving movement; gust or puff of air or wind; odour, scent; slight blow; slight attack of illness; glimpse; apparition, wraith; of the wind: to cause (something) to move to and fro; to flutter or wave to and fro in the wind; to produce a current of air by waving, to fan”) (Northern England, Scotland), a variant of waive (etymology 2) or wave (see further at those entries). * Middle English wef, weffe (“bad odour, stench, stink; exhalation; vapour; tendency of something to go bad (?)”) [and other forms], possibly a variant of either: ** waf, waif, waife (“odour, scent”), possibly from waven (“to move to and fro, sway, wave; to stray, wander; to move in a weaving manner; (figuratively) to hesitate, vacillate”), from Old English wafian (“to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webh- (“to braid, weave”); or ** wef (“a blow, stroke”), from weven (“to travel, wander; to move to and fro, flutter, waver; to blow something away, waft; to cause something to move; to fall; to cut deeply; to sever; to give up, yield; to give deference to; to avoid; to afflict, trouble; to beckon, signal”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old English wefan (“to weave”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webh- (“to braid, weave”)), or from wǣfan (see bewǣfan, ymbwǣfan).
A humorous reinterpretation of waif as an initialism for why am I famous?
Across languages
45 source translations are retained for this English entry.
