ELVES

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does elves mean? 

• ELVES (noun)
  The noun ELVES has 1 sense:

1. an acronym for emissions of light and very low frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources; extremely bright extremely short (less than a msec) electrical flashes forming a huge ring (up to 400 km diameter) in the ionosphere

  Familiarity information: ELVES used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ELVES (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An acronym for emissions of light and very low frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources; extremely bright extremely short (less than a msec) electrical flashes forming a huge ring (up to 400 km diameter) in the ionosphere

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

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

atmospheric electricity (electrical discharges in the atmosphere)

 Context examples 

If you need to move to take the job, these planets are working like little elves to make that possible, too.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The Unquenchables had done their best to be worthy of the name, for like elves they had worked by night and conjured up a comical surprise.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"In the name of all the elves in Christendom, is that Jane Eyre?" he demanded.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The thought pleased the good cobbler very much; and one evening, when all the things were ready, they laid them on the table, instead of the work that they used to cut out, and then went and hid themselves, to watch what the little elves would do.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

But in spite of the comical red imps, sparkling elves, and the gorgeous princes and princesses, Jo's pleasure had a drop of bitterness in it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I considered it a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tales: for as to the elves, having sought them in vain among foxglove leaves and bells, under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling old wall-nooks, I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were all gone out of England to some savage country where the woods were wilder and thicker, and the population more scant; whereas, Lilliput and Brobdignag being, in my creed, solid parts of the earth's surface, I doubted not that I might one day, by taking a long voyage, see with my own eyes the little fields, houses, and trees, the diminutive people, the tiny cows, sheep, and birds of the one realm; and the corn-fields forest-high, the mighty mastiffs, the monster cats, the tower-like men and women, of the other.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)