waif

noun

1. (British, archaic)An article of movable property which has been found, and of which the owner is not known, such as goods washed up on a beach or thrown away by an absconding thief; such items belong to the Crown, which may grant the right of ownership to them to a lord of a manor.

   “waifs and strays”

2. (figuratively)Something found, especially if without an owner; something which comes along, as it were, by chance.
3. (figuratively)A person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support; also, a person excluded from society; an outcast.

   “But vvhat a vvretched, and diſconſolate Hermitage is that Houſe, vvhich is not viſited by thee [God], and vvhat a VVayue, and Stray is that Man, that hath not thy Markes vpon him?”

   “Tenderly Kala nursed her little waif, wondering silently why it did not gain strength and agility as did the little apes of other mothers. It was nearly a year from the time the little fellow came into her possession before he would walk alone, and as for climbing—my, but how stupid he was!”

   “Only an old woman, bloated, disheveled and bleared. / Far-wandered waif of other days, / Huddles for sleep in a doorway, / Homeless.”

4. (broadly, figuratively)A very thin person, especially a young one.

   “When we had done all the things there were to do, he passed out and I clung to his reassuringly solid, soft stomach—paternal, so different to the indie waifs—and cried.”

5. (broadly, figuratively)A plant introduced in a place outside its native range but not persistently naturalized.
6. (historical)A small flag used as a signal.

   “[page 440] The allusion to waifs and waif-poles in the last chapter but one, necessitates some account of the laws and regulations of the whale fishery, of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge. […] [page 441] [A] fish is technically fast when it bears a waif, or any other recognised symbol of possession; so long as the party waifing it plainly evince their ability at any time to take it alongside, as well as their intention to do so.”

7. Something (such as clouds or smoke) carried aloft by the wind.

verb

1. (transitive)To cast aside or reject, and thus make a waif.

   “It is true that Guy, Count of Ponthieu, holds fief under me, but I have no control over the laws of his realm. And by those laws, he hath right of life and death over all stranded and waifed on his coast.”