Library / English Dictionary

WAFT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long flag; often tapering

Synonyms:

pennant; pennon; streamer; waft

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("waft" is a kind of...):

flag (emblem usually consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth of distinctive design)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "waft"):

pennoncel; pennoncelle; penoncel (a small pennant borne on a lance)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be driven or carried along, as by the air

Example:

Sounds wafted into the room

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "waft" is one way to...):

be adrift; blow; drift; float (be in motion due to some air or water current)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Blow gently

Example:

A breeze wafted through the door

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Hypernyms (to "waft" is one way to...):

blow (be blowing or storming)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

The winds you are going to tempt, have wafted thousands upon thousands to fortune, and brought thousands upon thousands happily back.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The wedding is to take place quietly, in the church down below yonder; and then I shall waft you away at once to town.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The storm had died down now to a gentle breeze, which wafted to his ears the long-drawn stirring bugle-calls which sounded from the ancient ramparts.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A few fishing vessels alone specked the water, and now and then the gentle breeze wafted the sound of voices as the fishermen called to one another.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

To me it was as if I had been wafted to a fairy world, and my uncle might have been some benevolent enchanter in a high-collared, long-tailed coat, who was guiding me about in it.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When I came to the stile, I stopped a minute, looked round and listened, with an idea that a horse's hoofs might ring on the causeway again, and that a rider in a cloak, and a Gytrash-like Newfoundland dog, might be again apparent: I saw only the hedge and a pollard willow before me, rising up still and straight to meet the moonbeams; I heard only the faintest waft of wind roaming fitful among the trees round Thornfield, a mile distant; and when I glanced down in the direction of the murmur, my eye, traversing the hall-front, caught a light kindling in a window: it reminded me that I was late, and I hurried on.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was an utter stillness, save for the sharp breathing of the Lady Tiphaine and for the gentle soughing of the wind outside, which wafted to their ears the distant call upon a swine-herd's horn.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There—for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators—there snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The wind, which had hitherto carried us along with amazing rapidity, sank at sunset to a light breeze; the soft air just ruffled the water and caused a pleasant motion among the trees as we approached the shore, from which it wafted the most delightful scent of flowers and hay.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)