waif🔊

(Britain, law, archaic) An article of movable property found 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.

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

(figurative) A person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support; also, a person excluded from society; an outcast.

(figurative, by extension) A very thin person.

(figurative, by extension, botany) A plant introduced in a place outside its native range but not persistently naturalized.

To cast aside or reject, and thus make a waif.

(nautical, chiefly whaling, historical) A small flag used as a signal.

Something (such as clouds or smoke) carried aloft by the wind.