waft
pronunciation
How to pronounce waft in British English:
UK [wɒft]
How to pronounce waft in American English:
US [wɑft]
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- Noun:
- a long flag; often tapering
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- Verb:
- be driven or carried along, as by the air
- blow gently
Word Origin
- waft
- waft: [16] A wafter was an ‘armed ship used for convoying others’ (the word was borrowed from Middle Dutch wachter ‘guard’, which came from the same prehistoric Germanic base as English wait, wake, and watch). The verb waft was derived from it by back-formation, and at first was used for ‘convey by water, convoy’ (‘Because certain pirates … were lurking at the Thames mouth … Thomas Lord Camoys with certain ships of war was appointed to waft over the king’, Edward Hall, Chronicle 1548). The change from ‘conveyance by water’ to ‘conveyance through the air’ began in the 17th century.=> wait, wake, watch
- waft (v.)
- c. 1500, transitive, "to move gently" (through the air), probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, ultimately from wachten "to guard" (perhaps via notion of a ship that guards another as it sails), related to waken "rouse from sleep," from Proto-Germanic *waht- (see wake (n.1)). Possibly influenced by northern dialect waff "cause to move to and fro" (1510s), a variant of wave. Intransitive sense from 1560s. Related: Wafted; wafting.
Example
- 1. You winds , why waft so sadly
- 2. Occasionally , the poisons waft ashore to fill clinics with coughing patients .
- 3. We always waft on the edge of our dreams and struggle for life .
- 4. In the evenings , all manner of food smells waft down the corridors - stir-fried pork and tofu and greens .
- 5. I opened the plastic boxes that I 'd carried , sealed , all the way from london , and the stench of farmhouse cheeses began to waft across the room .