ELF • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Elf

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noun

Elf n. (pl. elves)

An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks. "Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier."

A very diminutive person; a dwarf.

Elf arrow, a flint arrowhead; so called by the English rural folk who often find these objects of prehistoric make in the fields and formerly attributed them to fairies; called also elf bolt, elf dart, and elf shot.

Elf child, a child supposed to be left by elves, in room of one they had stolen. See Changeling.

Elf fire, the ignis fatuus.

Elf owl (Zoöl.), a small owl (Micrathene Whitneyi) of Southern California and Arizona.

verb

Elf v. t. To entangle mischievously, as an elf might do. "Elf all my hair in knots."

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Etymology of 'Elf'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Elf" Quotes from Famous Books

... disgrace us all!" Upon which Sara would comfort her by saying that, as most parrots were trained by rough people, nothing better could be expected, and she was sure nobody would blame them; while Molly, the naughty little elf, would shake her curls with a ...

— Sara, a Princess • Fannie E. Newberry

... was out," James's spirits foamed over as naturally as a tumbler of soda water, and he could jump over benches and burst out of doors with as much rapture as the veriest little elf in his company. Then you might have seen him stepping homeward with a most felicitous expression of countenance, occasionally reaching his hand through the fence for a bunch of currants, or over it after ...

— The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... young coquette, a lawless little brigand, a child of sunny caprices, an elf of dauntless mischief; but she was more than these. The divine fire of genius had touched her, and Cigarette would have perished for her country not less surely than Jeanne d'Arc. The holiness of an impersonal love, the glow of an imperishable patriotism, the melancholy of a passionate pity for ...

— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]

... very word is like a bell To toll me back from thee to my sole self! Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf. Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades Past the near meadows, over the still stream, Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep In the next valley-glades: Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that ...

— The Hundred Best English Poems • Various

... Phelps' patience had come to an end. Sometimes it seemed to her as if this solemn-eyed child purposely misunderstood, and mocked at her attempts to lead unwilling feet along the path of learning, and she was at a loss to know how to deal with the sprightly elf who danced and flitted about like an elusive will-o'-wisp. The fact that she was the University President's granddaughter was the only thing that had saved her thus far from utter disfavor in the eyes of her teacher; but now even that fact was ...

— Heart of Gold • Ruth Alberta Brown

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