WAFT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does waft mean? 

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

1. a long flag; often tapering

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

• WAFT (verb)
  The verb WAFT has 2 senses:

1. be driven or carried along, as by the air

2. blow gently

  Familiarity information: WAFT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WAFT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long flag; often tapering

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

pennant; pennon; streamer; waft

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)

• WAFT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they waft    ... he / she / it wafts   
Past simple: wafted   
Past participle: wafted   
-ing form: wafting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be driven or carried along, as by the air

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

Sounds wafted into the room

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

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Context example:

A breeze wafted through the door

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

blow (be blowing or storming)

Sentence frames:

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

 Context examples 

We went over the side into our boat, and lay at a little distance, to see the ship wafted on her course.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But I will endeavour to detail these bitter circumstances to you, my dear sister; and while I am wafted towards England and towards you, I will not despond.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

These bans an' wafts an' boh-ghosts an' barguests an' bogles an' all anent them is only fit to set bairns an' dizzy women a-belderin'.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was my neighbour Warr who very good-humouredly pointed out to me all these celebrities, the echoes of whose fame had been wafted down even to our little Sussex village.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A waft of wind came sweeping down the laurel-walk, and trembled through the boughs of the chestnut: it wandered away—away—to an indefinite distance—it died.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Sir Nigel gave a long sigh as he came back from the dreams of chivalry and hardihood into which this strange woman's words had wafted him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The seafloor is an alien landscape, with crushing pressures, near-total darkness and fluids wafting from cracks in the Earth's crust.

(Giant group of octopus moms discovered in the deep sea, National Science Foundation)

The breeze had not seemed to waft the sighs of the murdered to her; it had wafted nothing worse than a thick mizzling rain; and having given a good shake to her habit, she was ready to be shown into the common drawing-room, and capable of considering where she was.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

One of these was his present companion, Baron Von Herling, the chief secretary of the legation, whose huge 100-horse-power Benz car was blocking the country lane as it waited to waft its owner back to London.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I sing a song, and thanks to the magazine editors I transmute my song into a waft of the west wind sighing through our redwoods, into a murmur of waters over mossy stones that sings back to me another song than the one I sang and yet the same song wonderfully—er—transmuted.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)