(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 .
Wail
Definition:
(v. t.) To choose; to select.
(v. t.) To lament; to bewail; to grieve over; as, to wail one's death.
(v. i.) To express sorrow audibly; to make mournful outcry; to weep.
(n.) Loud weeping; violent lamentation; wailing.
Example Sentences:
(1) You couldn't get much more bohemian than the music playing in this room of tiny round tables, first French crooner Serge Gainsbourg and then cabaret freak Scott Walker wailing of their obelisk-size pain.
(2) Every now and then some rich Oga or Madam comes along in their bulletproof cars and wailing sirens, and distorts the delicate equilibrium of this body of traffic.
(3) In groups 1 and 2, clusters of cylindrical tubules, typical of the male gland, decreased in number and disappeared almost completely 2 wailed in these two groups throughout the remaining period of experiment.
(4) "Barcelona's habit of playing midfielders in defence will do them more harm than good," he wails.
(5) "Gnnmph, I can't 'ave it 'ere, I 'aven't 'ad my enema," wails a labouring housewife, straining fruitlessly on a communal tenement bog as horrified neighbours look on in their rollers.
(6) There were moments when music seemed to struggle to be heard over the tocking of iPod clickwheels and the wailing of record company executives.
(7) The army cleared itself of responsibility for the killing of a Palestinian family on a Gaza beach three weeks ago during an artillery barrage after many Israelis were shaken by television pictures of a traumatised child wailing over the body of her father.
(8) While Arsenal fans have spent the last nine years gnashing and wailing, Hull supporters have cheered the incredible resurrection of their club, as David Conn explains here .
(9) Some family members, after years of begging for mercy and receiving none, broke down and wailed.
(10) The big story Once upon a time the Oscar ceremony was a comforting drone punctuated only by the odd song-and-dance routine and the banshee wailing of overwhelmed best actress award winners.
(11) Elsewhere on the carpet Quentin Tarantino is having a bop with Uma Thurman (again), Xavier Dolan is wearing an outrageous tux (again) and the boring normal people at the barriers are wailing for stars' attention (again).
(12) Later that night, Lola wailed in the street as the police prised her baby from her arms and led her into custody.
(13) Family members who had gathered at a hotel in Beijing wailed as they heard the news.
(14) Naderi offered his prayers to Dhu’s family at the end of his evidence, saying: “I wish I was able to pick up any abnormal signs that may have made a difference.” Carol Roe ran crying from the courtroom, her wail flowing back through the door to where Naderi was seated in the witness box.
(15) Sorrowful wails and sobs resounded as thousands of Rwandans packed the country's main sports stadium to mark the 20th anniversary of the beginning of a devastating 100-day genocide.
(16) Sandy breaking out of the compound BB3 Sandy's insistence on his quirkiness got rather wearing, so it was just as well he made a bid for escape, with his new best friend Alex wailing, "Be careful, Sandy, be careful!"
(17) Starbucks admitted that while it can (quite incredibly) claim that its 700 UK stores are not profitable, through wails of what seemed like crocodile tears, its 30 coffee traders in Switzerland make an enormous 20% profit margin despite never seeing a coffee bean; a fact that the committee could not have helped noting might be related to the 12% tax it pays in that state.
(18) Their players are distraught and making a mess of everything, while the TV producer here is having an absolute ball picking out wailing Brazilians in the crowd.
(19) Another shows a scene of villagers wailing with grief: “Villagers grieve as their friend is put into the ambulance,” the voiceover says.
(20) Among those who finally decided that Kobani was on the brink was Mukdad Bozan, travelling with his wife, a wailing baby and three bedraggled older children.