Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Showing results for waif. Search instead for waef.
Definitions

waif

[weyf] / weɪf /
NOUN
lost or unclaimed person or thing
Synonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In a meticulously crafted stop-motion world of gritty dockside poverty, a starving waif discovers the neglected girl in a shabby home weeps not teardrops but pearls.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 16, 2026

The day after she and her husband, Jack, sculpt the figure of a child out of snow, an ethereal waif emerges from the wilderness.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

The trial heard him described as a "ruffian" and a "street waif" who never stood still.

From BBC • Jan. 27, 2025

One might wonder whether the fictional narrative of the beleaguered waif in a judgmental small town is Owens’s way of addressing something in her own past.

From Washington Post • Jul. 13, 2022

Only moments later, I was wearing a black dress and heels, and Harry had been transformed from a waif in baggy clothes to the smartly dressed boy prodigy that we knew him to be.

From "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson




Vocabulary lists containing waif


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember "waif" for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com