What's the difference between waft and waif?

Waft


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon.
  • (v. t.) To cause to move or go in a wavy manner, or by the impulse of waves, as of water or air; to bear along on a buoyant medium; as, a balloon was wafted over the channel.
  • (v. t.) To cause to float; to keep from sinking; to buoy.
  • (v. i.) To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float.
  • (n.) A wave or current of wind.
  • (n.) A signal made by waving something, as a flag, in the air.
  • (n.) An unpleasant flavor.
  • (n.) A knot, or stop, in the middle of a flag.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Shorten presented to the world as a wafting, benign cloud.
  • (2) Great for families, but not those families offended by whiffs of a special herb wafting across the lawn.
  • (3) I savour the smell of the food stalls as I ride down Whitecross Street market at about 11am, inhaling successive wafts of roasting steak, baking flatbreads, frying onions, toasting cumin seeds, sizzling bacon, curries and chillies and pickles and melting cheese.
  • (4) Fat sizzles, flour sifts, and delicious smells waft around.
  • (5) At least 900 airplane flights into and out of Bali and other regional airports were cancelled due to concerns about the ash clouds, which wafted as high as six kilometres (20,000ft) into the air.
  • (6) Oscar can just about be given the benefit of the doubt after an optimistic fall in front of Bellerín but Cesc Fàbregas deserved all the condemnation that came his way when he wafted his leg in the direction of Santi Cazorla, then plopped to the ground in the vain hope that the referee, Michael Oliver, might be conned.
  • (7) Danny Welbeck wafted his attempt over the crossbar.
  • (8) The smell of fried food wafts from the door of the Docks Cafe, which sits in the shadow of Tata Steel’s sprawling Port Talbot steelworks.
  • (9) Two of them, Shane Long and James Ward-Prowse, undid the home defence in the 83rd minute, only for Ward-Prowse to waft a shot over from 14 yards.
  • (10) Yet his scatter-gun intelligence had been obvious during a long conversation in which he had wafted through subjects as diverse as depression and discipline, addiction and hope, religion and money – and his complicated feelings towards Haye.
  • (11) Valencia snatched at his shot and wafted it over the crossbar without really looking up to weigh his options.
  • (12) 8.52pm GMT Neil Lennon lays down the law Neil Lennon (@OfficialNeil) Contrary to reports there have been no fresh bids for Gary and even if there are they will be rejected..he is NOT for sale January 31, 2013 8.48pm GMT Denials are now wafting out of Upton Park about the reported bid for Diamé.
  • (13) He tossed Shakespeare into a modern-day, thinly veiled Miami in the electrifying Romeo + Juliet and sent Nicole Kidman wafting, purring and simpering through bohemian Paris in Moulin Rouge!
  • (14) The air extraction system designed to suck out the humid breath, sweat, skin flakes, hair, dust and pollution wafting up towards the frescoes was almost 20 years old and urgently needed replacing, he said.
  • (15) And then smile calmly at her back as she switches on the kettle and enjoy the gentle sensation of a breeze wafting through your plush and generous under-arm hair.
  • (16) Within minutes, the bitter scent of tear-gas had wafted into the hospital grounds, sparking panic that the riot police were coming for them there as well.
  • (17) But Ameobi wafts a weak header into Hart's arms, a poor effort from a decent position.
  • (18) carbon dioxide emissions, it has never systematically measured its fugitive methane leaks, which waft from every stage of the gas extraction, processing, and distribution process – from the well casings and the condenser valves to the cracked pipelines under Harlem neighbourhoods.
  • (19) In Amsterdam, long famous for its coffee shops, identifiable by pictures of marijuana outside and fumes wafting through the door, international experts gathering to discuss cannabis regulation said the international conventions, once so heavily policed by the US, would now be increasingly flouted.
  • (20) They have the same faces and a lot of moleskin fur – not exactly first class, in other words, but still chic – with arrogant legs and a great waft of perfume about them.” Keun was too much for the Nazis; she fled to Ostend where she took Joseph Roth for her lover.

Waif


Definition:

  • (n.) Goods found of which the owner is not known; originally, such goods as a pursued thief threw away to prevent being apprehended, which belonged to the king unless the owner made pursuit of the felon, took him, and brought him to justice.
  • (n.) Hence, anything found, or without an owner; that which comes along, as it were, by chance.
  • (n.) A wanderer; a castaway; a stray; a homeless child.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Fringe right parties do tend to collect a number of waifs and strays.
  • (2) The fiercest denunciation came from the minister without portfolio, Kenneth Clarke, who characterised Ukip candidates as waifs and strays, feeding on prejudice about immigration.
  • (3) After a hard day at the Vatican, the pontiff likes little better than watching films in which a resolute priest battles the Nazis and a circus strongman takes a waif as his slave.
  • (4) "The fringe right parties do tend to collect a number of waifs and strays.
  • (5) The brochure was promoting a scheme where you take waif kids and kids of the pauper class and the slums before they could be corrupted by the poverty and crime of England and send them to Australia for education and opportunity in schools like Fairbridge, where we would become strong and long-limbed by working the farms,” Hill says.
  • (6) Waif-like figures, mostly young men from Morocco and Algeria, rushed to grab the polystyrene cups.
  • (7) It was symptomatic of the first half that Stoke’s wonder waif, Bojan Krkic, harassed Cazorla into coughing up possession on halfway in the 25th minute before out-fighting Per Mertesacker to set up a Stoke attack that culminated in a dangerous corner.
  • (8) Chapter 39 also forgot about women altogether when it spoke of outlawry, for women were not outlawed they were “waived”, which meant left as a “waif”.
  • (9) Five minutes in and you realise that this is not a permanent home – simply the Swedish base camp of a huge nomadic family with its roots in the 1960s, whose friends and collaborators connect some of the most unlikely names, from Ornette Coleman to Ari Up from the Slits, from Martina Topley-Bird to waifs and strays such as "that strange young man that Cameron met in the street and let live in our house for a while".
  • (10) Last week even a waif washing car windscreens at traffic lights was executed.
  • (11) Dramas set in these times tend either to be full of the sort of tubercular waifs whose lives are so mud-spattered they become slapstick, or cheeky orphan chimney sweeps saying things like “Cor it’ll be nippy by St Modwen’s Day and no mistake, guvnor!” next to a lovely shire horse.
  • (12) The lines were written only a few days before his death: Through these pale cold days What dark faces burn Out of three thousand years, And their wild eyes yearn, While underneath their brows Like waifs their spirits grope For the pools of Hebron again For Lebanon's summer slope.
  • (13) Ukip has "fruitcakes, loonies, waifs and strays" in its ranks and among its supporters, Kenneth Clarke has said after a spate of stories questioning the credentials of the party's candidates in this week's local elections.
  • (14) But it is now also a parliamentary waif without a home or useful purpose.
  • (15) Waifs were everywhere; the odder-looking the better.
  • (16) This caustic ensemble comedy is about a neurotic actress (Julianne Moore) haunted by her dead mother, a repellent Bieber-esque teen star (terrific up-and-comer Evan Bird) and a deranged waif (Mia Wasikowska) with a dark past.
  • (17) When I mention that I live near Tony Benn , and often see him taking an hour to buy a pint of milk because he patiently engages with every passing waif and stray who wants his advice on something or other, Farage's eyes light up.
  • (18) The teenage waif became a symbol of sanctions-busting, of the weasel ways in which western governments eroded the campaign to isolate Pretoria.
  • (19) Since the supermodels of the 90s – the likes of Elle Macpherson and Claudia Schiffer – retired their bronzed Amazonian limbs, the favoured look has been vacant and waif-like: an ethereal type, easily made bland and identikit for the catwalk after hair and makeup.
  • (20) Ukip said that Lynam, the face of television sport during the 1980s, sent the party rewritten lyrics to Send in the Clowns , mocking Conservative critics who lambasted Ukip as a bunch of fruitcakes, loonies, waifs and strays .