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waif

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


Example Sentences

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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

But by age 12, she found herself worrying that she wasn’t quite the physical ideal espoused by the school’s late founder, George Balanchine: a half-starved waif.

From Washington Post Mar. 14, 2023

Kira remembered the power of the singing voice that she had heard, and marveled that it had come from this tiny, frightened waif of a thing.

From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry




Vocabulary lists containing waif


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