How To Use Waif In A Sentence

A gamine ingenue to her sophisticated divorcee, she plays this streetwise waif with the same knowing naivety that made the 12-year-old such a disturbingly seductive assassin's helpmate in her first film, Leon.
All her images of a tiny waif locked in the attic seemed suddenly foolish and fantastic.
Gradually their talk died and drowsiness began to steal upon the eyelids of the little waifs.
Artie enters with a lost teen waif named Donna whom he found in an elevator.
His pilgrimage is dogged by calamity, as oxen sicken and die, the cart carrying the bell catches fire, and waifs and strays join his tattered procession.

Nevertheless, there was great satisfaction in cherishing the little waif, for she learned more than she could teach and felt a sense of responsibility which was excellent ballast for her enthusiastic nature. Rose in Bloom
Your willingness to help others is admirable, but unless you're a registered charity you'd best contain your habit of taking in waifs and offering them a hot bath and food.
I said I was embarrassed not to know; someone had assured me that a theremin was a kind of "Eastern" religion, and the "cracking into a thousand pieces" was the consequence of being peered at by a waiflike holy man enveloped in a white shroud. Archive 2007-06-01
In an era of waifs and buffed bodies, the full-figured beauties in Rubens's works have a graceful nobility.
The rhetoric inherited from the Victorian world insists that prostitutes were penniless waifs of the street, servant girls who were seduced and abandoned, or the coarse streetwalkers hardened by city life.
They sounded out of breath, like beautiful hungover waify fashion models propped up in front of a microphone after a night of dancing and smoking unfiltered cigarettes.
The waif is a pennoned pole, two or three of which are carried by every boat; and which, when additional game is at hand, are inserted upright into the floating body of a dead whale, both to mark its place on the sea, and also as token of prior possession, should the boats of any other ship draw near. Moby Dick: or, the White Whale
Perhaps some of them thought they befriended me for charity's sake, because I was a starved waif from the slums. The Promised Land
Maybe there's a waifish attendant in the men's, a rose in a stem vase and acres of wide-open country. Globe and Mail
Not once but several times has the libertine Neptune scandalously seduced punts and dinghies from the respectable precincts of Brammo Bay, and having philandered with them for a while, cynically abandoned them with a bump on the mainland beach, and only once has he sent a punt in return — a poor, soiled, tar-besmirched, disorderly waif that was reported to the police and reluctantly claimed. The Confessions of a Beachcomber
But Nicole claims that she's always been a tiny bony little waif, and during season one of The Simple Life, she was going through a rare chubby period.
From the waift, upwards, they are generally naked; and it feemed to be a cuflom to anoint thefe parts every morning. Voyages and TRavels in All Parts of the World
Once a tiny, flitting waif, she had become a graceful, full-figured woman.
The waifs, strays, deodands, goods of felons and fugitives, etc., within the hundred belonged to the lord if the bailiff of the hundred seized them first.
In January 1945, at 13, she emerged from a Nazi labor camp in Czestochowa, Poland, a waif on the verge of death.
Tavistock Street already has a number of problems which seem to be exacerbated by a policy of housing the waifs and strays of the borough nearby.
Like Lessing during the 1960s, Frances is a ‘housemother’, who fills her large home with an eclectic mixture of waifs, strays and scroungers.
waifs of the picaresque tradition
Merlin, Jo and Ollie are siblings; waifs and strays with an absent father and a hopeless mother who locks them out of the house for long periods.
My wife is always inviting various waifs and strays from work to our house. She seems to attract them.
The youngsters have raised £1,800 towards the almost completed first safe house for Ukrainian waifs and strays, paid for and equipped by Kendal-based charity New Beginnings.
Experts estimate that China has at least 150,000 waifs between the ages of 10 and 15 wandering its streets.
Lavant plays a vagrant waif, Binoche a runaway painter.
Fu-ch'ai's surviving friends had indeed a very lively stimulus indeed-the fear of instant death-to drive them tumultuously over the seas; and doubtless, as they must have been perfectly harmless after tossing about hungry in open boats for weeks together, they would be as welcome to the Japanese king, or to the petty chief or chiefs who received the waifs, as in our own times was the honest sailor Will Adams when he drifted friendless to Japan, and whose statue now adorns a great Japanese city as that of a man who was, in a humble way, also a "civilizer" of Japan (600 A.D.). Ancient China Simplified
At first, it was difficult for Eva to find work. Those super - thin waif mannequins were in.
They wrap round the waift a piece of cloth that reaches half way down the thighs, and fometimes in the cool of the evening they appeared with loofe pieces of fine cloth thrown over their fhoulders, like the women of Otaheite. Voyages and TRavels in All Parts of the World
I hate to use the word waif, but what else can you call all these skinny young hairless guys? NYT > Home Page
The country folk, who were prowling about the shore after the waifs of the storm, deserted "jetsom and lagend," and crowded to meet the richer prize which was coming in Hereward, the Last of the English
Yet know it was vastly otherwise which I have heard it by mmummy goods waif, as I, chiefly endmost hartyly aver, for Finnegans Wake
I used to pick up all sorts of collarless waifs and strays from our housing estate in Ireland.
A lost waif and stray of extraordinary beauty turned up in Aberdeen and made the front page of two national newspapers: a bluethroat looking enchantingly like a robin that had been coloured in wrong.
Those movies wanted us to see her as a Pre-Raphaelite figure but she verged on a Walter Keane waif.
They knew that, like the Dickensian waif, a good wash and new clothes would reveal an angelic face.
Artful Dodgers are on every street corner waiting for poor orphaned waifs.
I don't want the Royce Reflection to look like a half-starved, overworked waif. DESERT RAIN
The youth had turned from waif to coquette in the space of one night. EVERVILLE
Audrey Hepburn is luminous, waif-like, but with nobility that itself transcended her character's station.
If I do not succeed in getting Dionea this place (and all your Excellency's illustriousness and all my poor eloquence will be needed to counteract the sinister reports attaching to our poor little waif), it will be best to accept your suggestion of taking the girl into your household at Rome, since you are curious to see what you call our baleful beauty. Hauntings
I grew an inch taller and broader between the corner of Cedar Street and Mr. Tetlow's house, such was the charm of the clean, green suburb on a cramped waif from the slums. The Promised Land
And here I assumed you to be a spiritless little waif!
With the exception of a saintly matron, called Mama Sunshine, who collects waifs and strays, grown-ups are not to be trusted.
British waif Kate Moss was to follow, helping to launch his unisex perfume CK one.
My underclothing and socks, however, were new and warm, but of the sort that any American waif, down in his luck, could acquire in the ordinary course of events. THE DESCENT
Winter for Kiev's waifs and strays is a cold, bleak daily battle for survival.
It's what the cool waif girls would throw on effortlessly but still look amazing.
Into this die Greenlander thrufis himfelf up to the waift, and fattens the ikia An historical, geographical, commercial, and philosophical view of the American United States
A male opponent small enough for Diana to handle would have to be a scrappy waif of a flyweight.
Coogan essentially reprises the role that made him famous, only this time he's an immigrant waif orphaned during his sea passage from the Old World.
The labor movement used the dominant culture's gendered representations of fallen women, tramps and street waifs to assert their demands for a living wage and an eight hour day.
There are lots of waifs and strays living on the streets here.
Learn more about the word "waif" and see usage examples across a range of subjects on the Vocabulary.com dictionary. NYT > Home Page
The word waif has appeared in 19 New York Times articles in the past year, including this week in Monday's editions in "From Boys to Men," by Guy Trebay: NYT > Home Page
It was hard to believe this modest little place was charity shop Barnardo's, once associated with sale of second-hand items to raise funds for waifs and orphans.
Françoise Hardy was the waif-like archetype for a certain type of French vocal which many consider the quintessence of Sixties French pop.
Zorina was no ethereal waif; she gave sturdy, supple body to the classical dance.
Britney has bridged the gap between knowing teenage waif and sex bomb.
The men wear broad-brimmed hats, blick jackets, fuU-glated breeches of the facme colour, bofe at the knee, and tied round the waift. The general gazetteer, or, Compendious geographical dictionary [microform] : containing a description of the empires, kingdoms, states, provinces, cities, towns, forts, seas, harbours, rivers, lakes, mountains, capes, &c. in the known world : with the
The waifs are back… those small, thin people are ruling the media.
And that euery Christian manne, when he stode in any daungier of death, beyng whole of minde, should receiue it as a waifaring viande, to staye him by the waye: with as good preparation of bodye and soule, as he possibly mighte. The Fardle of Facions, conteining the aunciente maners, customes and lawes, of the peoples enhabiting the two partes of the earth, called Affricke and Asie
Munch's "The Scream" is an icon of existentialist angst showing a waif-like figure against a blood-red sky.
Whether one prefers pretty boys to rugged types, or strong-featured women to doe-eyed waifs, may reveal more about a person than we realize.
You appreciate someone with a few extra pounds (as opposed to, say, the starving waifs you presented me with?)
Lauren had changed from being a chatty, chubby, healthy child to become a withdrawn, frightened waif with ‘stick-insect thin’ arms.
A dark Goth pop spectacle, should one exist, would work best with a pale, dark-haired waif, who moves in a dreamy ethereal manner - a buxom earth mother cast in this role would simply spoil the whole look.
He fore, round his waift. a broad rcti and w*hite che - Historical Account of the Most Celebrated Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries [microform]: From ...
This waif-like girl was sitting upright, gasping for breath with an oxygen cannula dripping blood.
I suppose Jin thinks I am a weeping waif, looking for a poor soul to shed her troubles on in a rain of sobs and runny noses.
My wife is always inviting various waifs and strays from work to our house. She seems to attract them.
But quick-witted Mrs. Holmes guessed the word had been "waif" -- poor little waif, and she began dimly to comprehend the big-hearted, rough tent-man, who had tried to guard this little foreign maid from the ignorance and evil about her. Stage Confidences
The waif is a pennoned pole, two or three of which are carried by every boat; and when additional game is at hand, are inserted upright into the floating body of a dead whale, both to mark its place on the sea, and also as token of prior possession, should the boats of any other ship draw near. Moby Dick; or the Whale
What emerges is a picture of London that is like a mix of Peter Ackroyd and Edgar Allan Poe and that involves reported encounters with nocturnal litter-collectors on the underground as well as ghostly waifs and even a teenage, matricidal psychopath. My City – review | Michael Billington
It will also act as a staging post for medical care and feeding for some of Kiev's 10,000 homeless waifs and strays.
Whose fscking brilliant idea was it to take this starveling waif and stretch her across these rough, scratchy, painful rocks so that one of them is digging visibly into her chest? Sports Illustrated: Hem hem
'FaL I would it were otherwife; i'would my meam were greater, and my waift flenderer. The Dramatic Works of Shakspeare: In Six Volumes
Dutton's Epoch label seems to be turning into a home for British music's foundlings, but Cyril Scott is one of the more deserving of those waifs and strays.
There were more of those girls than there were little waif heroin-looking chicks.
Mrs Tarpen had no problem with that idea, and she rather liked the idea of helping a homeless waif off the streets.
At his St Thomas's gym, on the run-down hill on Wincobank, world-class boxers spar among a small band of waifs and strays aged from five to 50.
Together (she is a poor waif, a child of shame, yours and mine and of all for a bare shilling and her luckpenny), together they hear the heavy tread of the watch as two raincaped shadows pass the new royal university. Ulysses
He said that she must not be "fullish," she must be "good and sensible," she must fall in with the views of those "older and wiser" than herself; finally, after his arguments and admonitions, he laid his hand on her bowed head as if silently giving a patriarchal blessing; and Mavis watched and admired, and loved him for his noble generosity in taking so much trouble about the poor little waif that had no real claim on him. The Devil's Garden
And she didn't want to wake little Sandy, with her tiny waif's face and her terror-stricken eyes. DREAMS OF INNOCENCE
They are large, (Irong, and favage people, in general taller than the inhabitants of the fea-fliores; they go moilly naked, both men and women, and only wear a thick bandage round their waift, which is called chiaaca, and is made of the milky bark of a tree, called by them facka (being the ficamorus alba). Voyages and TRavels in All Parts of the World
In addition to these, we found 3 chemical waifs: an unrecognized stranger between hydrogen and helium which we named occultum, for purposes of reference, and 2 varieties of one element, which we named kalon and meta-kalon, between xenon and osmium; we also found 4 varieties of 4 recognized elements and prefixed meta to the name of each, and a second form of platinum, that we named Pt. B. Occult Chemistry Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements
If a waif is a lost wanderer, then little Poosk was a decided waif for he had gone very much astray indeed in the North American backwoods. Personal Reminiscences in Book Making and Some Short Stories
He liked his little protege ever since that unfortunate child -- a waif from a Chinese wash-house -- was impounded by some indignant miners for bringing home a highly imperfect and insufficient washing, and kept as hostage for a more proper return of the garments. Under the Redwoods
In an era of waifs and buffed bodies, the full-figured beauties in Rubens's works have a graceful nobility.
The mite was a waif too, alone in the world when his father was at sea, pathetically helpless, with no defence against blows and unkindness. Sisters
It confuses me, being the over-educated waif stuck in a world of immorality, no clear route out.
Humorous half-columns in the local papers, written in the customary silly way by unlicked cub reporters just out of grammar school, tickled the fancy of San Francisco for a fleeting moment in that the steamship Mariposa had rescued some sea-waifs possessed of a cock-and-bull story that not even the reporters believed. CHAPTER XVI
No it's not an obsession, it is the fact that never has a footballer's sheer skill so intoxicated me as that of the spindly-legged waif from Belfast.
This is the simplified world of a child's memories - although Joe is no naïve waif - and it is largely remembered with fondness.
And she didn't want to wake little Sandy, with her tiny waif 's face and her terror-stricken eyes. DREAMS OF INNOCENCE
The youth had turned from waif to coquette in the space of one night. EVERVILLE
We have seen so much drossels around blogs and sites but where is mine? well, with the blessing of the great kindred, a drossel arrives safely to aid and serve our little explorer, Konata-chan in her future exploration missions. the all-so-formal session with Konata, Kagami (Konata's waifu) and Mew, the advisor drossel is like Konata. .she loves dangerous stunts … I am sure she is gonna get along with Konata AnimeBlogger.net Antenna
Menswear trends call for either extreme muscularity or waifish androgyny on the catwalk. Times, Sunday Times
In fituations of any ceremony I appeared in my full drefs, which con - liiled in a long white robe girt round the waift in the manner of the Marrattas; and with a turban and fandals, in the Moorim fafhion. Travels round the world, in the years 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771
The charm of his take on the situation is that the golden boy and girl expand their bubble of radiant happiness to let the waif in.
Who thinks a white blond, blue-eyed, slender waif can commit murder?
The superstition grew apace that this was a mystic courier come with great news from the war -- the poetry of the idea excusing and commending it -- and on it spread, from heart to heart, from lip to lip and from street to street, till there was a general impulse to have out the military and welcome the bright waif with a salvo of artillery! Roughing It, Part 6.
His drcfs was alight blue robe, and a girdle of rofe-colour furrounded his waift. The Siamese Tales: Being a Collection of Stories Told to the Son of the ...
Even at 33 he seems determined to occupy the crease, leaving the forlorn Iberian waif stranded at the non-striker's end. Chelsea Premier League 2011-12 team guide
Actually, the Kincaid character had a woeful start, spending the first of her three seasons as a tedious, incompetent waif.
Carilya was odd, a slender frail-looking girl, though no longer the skinny waif she had been.
ThM I know, i fucccfsful niifttncc i a frtwAift'o**. itot a rtHtiliM. The speeches of Iohn Wilkes, one of the knights of the shire for the county of Middlesex, in the Parliament appointed to meet at Westminster the 29.th day of November 1774, to the prorogation the 6.th day of June 1777
All her images of a tiny waif locked in the attic seemed suddenly foolish and fantastic.
Our millennium dinner has become SE London epicentre for all strays & waifs. AND GOD CREATED THE AU PAIR
It has also misled him but too often into depicting a world of suicides, ignoring or overlooking a secret hobby, or passion, or chimaera which is the one thing that renders existence endurable to so many of the waifs and strays of life. The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories
In the space of a couple of weeks, the one-time "earth mother" and macrobiotic devotee has transformed herself from willowy waif into sexy, strapping Glamazonian.
Jay, dear, go get her luggage, this little waif who was obviously underfed in London, shouldn't have to carry her own.
The second image was of a windswept, fork-bearded and eagle-eyed man of craggy features, huge and solid, wearing boots and an Inverness cape, next to his wife, a diminutive and elflike waif with a strange and unearthly smile. INTERVIEW: John C. Wright
With the spread of Sunday schools and increasing literacy a huge market for religious fiction was created, stories of street waifs by such writers as ‘Hesba Stretton’ being particularly popular.
Curvaceous, decidedly feminine and womanly I would say, rather than waifish and childlike.
I just realized now how many times I've found myself zoning out in front of my work station while thinking of fondling BSNYC, not as a he or she, but some kind of androgynous muscular waif, a grimy enigma, as he/she unvelcros his/her dirty cycling shoes with her/his gritty fingers after experiencing a whole new world of pain after a race... The Indignity of Commuting by Bicycle: The Dignity of Attending a Press Conference
He's now 33 and seems both younger — waifish and playful — and older. Times, Sunday Times
The bluegown, in short, is no waif and stray, no product of social corruption, or mere obnoxious parasite, but Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.)
Robby's wife was a beautiful yet petite waif of a woman with straight, jet black hair.
I am not some anaemic little waif who looks like she'll blow away in a strong wind.
It's yin o 'thae waifs of the war-field, a' sobbin 'and shakin' wi 'fricht. Ballads of a Bohemian
The youth had turned from waif to coquette in the space of one night. EVERVILLE
Women of a low rank, and girls, l»ve clothes wrapped round them from the waift to the knees. The general gazetteer, or, Compendious geographical dictionary [microform] : containing a description of the empires, kingdoms, states, provinces, cities, towns, forts, seas, harbours, rivers, lakes, mountains, capes, &c. in the known world : with the

How To Use Waif In A Sentence

Report a problem

Please indicate a type of error

Additional information (optional):