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Waft   /wɑft/   Listen
noun
Waft  n.  
1.
A wave or current of wind. "Everywaft of the air." "In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing Sweeps up the burden of whole wintry plains In one wide waft."
2.
A signal made by waving something, as a flag, in the air.
3.
An unpleasant flavor. (Obs.)
4.
(Naut.) A knot, or stop, in the middle of a flag. (Written also wheft) Note: A flag with a waft in it, when hoisted at the staff, or half way to the gaff, means, a man overboard; at the peak, a desire to communicate; at the masthead, "Recall boats."



verb
Waft  v. t.  (past & past part. wafted; pres. part. wafting)  
1.
To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. (Obs.) "But soft: who wafts us yonder?"
2.
To cause to move or go in a wavy manner, or by the impulse of waves, as of water or air; to bear along on a buoyant medium; as, a balloon was wafted over the channel. "A gentle wafting to immortal life." "Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole."
3.
To cause to float; to keep from sinking; to buoy. (Obs.) Note: This verb is regular; but waft was formerly sometimes used, as by Shakespeare, instead of wafted.



Waft  v. i.  To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float. "And now the shouts waft near the citadel."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Waft" Quotes from Famous Books



... apparently the setting to rights by some lingering workman of such odds and ends as remain after finishing the great whole of such a building, suddenly the cool wind, which had shifted to the north, brought on its waft a most portentous roar. We stood still to listen. Nearer and nearer it swelled, crashing and hissing as it approached. Josephine grasped my arm with convulsive energy, and at that instant we perceived Mr. Waring's plaid cap pass an open casement. She turned upon me like a wild creature driven ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Number 9, July, 1858 • Various

... valley, I listened to the theme-like recitative of a warbling vireo, and also watched a sandpiper teetering about the edge of the water, while a red-shafted flicker dashed across the lake to a pine tree on the opposite side. As I left this attractive valley, the hermit thrushes seemed to waft me ...
— Birds of the Rockies • Leander Sylvester Keyser

... bemoan; condole with &c. 915; fret &c. (suffer) 828; wear mourning, go into mourning, put on mourning; wear the willow, wear sackcloth and ashes; infandum renovare dolorem &c. (regret) 833[Lat][Vergil]; give sorrow words. sigh; give a sigh, heave, fetch a sigh; "waft a sigh from Indus to the pole" [Pope]; sigh "like a furnace" [As you Like It]; wail. cry, weep, sob, greet, blubber, pipe, snivel, bibber[obs3], whimper, pule; pipe one's eye; drop tears, shed tears, drop a tear, shed a tear; melt into tears, burst into tears; fondre en larmes[Fr]; cry oneself ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... upon one of the old rectory pillows for a night or so, and, on such occasions all the Plumsteadians had been loud in praise of her condescension. Now it happened that when this second and more aggravated blast of the evil wind reached the rectory,—the renewed waft of the tidings as to Major Grantly's infatuation regarding Miss Grace Crawley, which, on its renewal, seemed to bring with it something of confirmation,—it chanced, I say, that at that moment Griselda, Marchioness of Hartletop, ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope

... two hundred and fifty-two feet; and it is hung one hundred feet above low-water mark by two cables of wire. Seen from below and at a little distance, it looks like gossamer work, and as though the wind could blow it away, and waft its filmy fragments out of sight. But the tread of a drove of elephants would not bend nor jar it. The Rock of Gibraltar does not feel firmer under foot than this spider's web of a bridge, over which trains of cars pass ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 • Various


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