waft

verb

\ ˈwäft

, ˈwaft

wafted; wafting; wafts

Definition of waft

(Entry 1 of 2)

intransitive verb

: to move or go lightly on or as if on a buoyant medium heavenly aromas wafted from the kitchen

transitive verb

: to cause to move or go lightly by or as if by the impulse of wind or waves

waft

noun

Definition of waft (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : something (such as an odor) that is wafted : whiff

2 : a slight breeze : puff

3 : the act of waving

4 : a pennant or flag used to signal or to show wind direction

Other Words from waft Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about waft

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Synonyms & Antonyms for waft

Synonyms: Verb

drift, float, glide, hang, hover, poise, ride, sail, swim

Synonyms: Noun

air, breath, breeze, puff, zephyr

Antonyms: Verb

settle, sink

Examples of waft in a Sentence

Verb

The smell of chicken soup wafted up to my bedroom. The sound of music wafted softly into the yard from our neighbor's house. A breeze wafted the scent of roses towards our table.

Noun

wafts carrying the scent of spring flowers

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

On Thursday nights at 6:30 p.m., music can be heard wafting through the center of Windsor from the Windsor Town Green on Broad Street. — courant.com, "Community News For The Windsor Edition," 3 July 2019 The wafting aroma of the roaster will hopefully attract coffee-lovers to their fresh African joe. — Savannah Eadens, The Courier-Journal, "Sample some African joe and book a safari at this new Louisville coffee house," 25 June 2019 Maybe no one will notice that Fido hasn't had a bath this week thanks to that sweet cinnamon scent wafting through the air. — Lauren Piro, Good Housekeeping, "10 Sneaky Ways You Fake Clean During the Holidays," 11 Dec. 2014 Food has always been able to connect us to different places and parts of our lives—a smell wafting through the streets can take us back decades. — Parker Bowie Larson, ELLE Decor, "Every Page of This New Cookbook Feels Like a Summer Weekend in the Hamptons," 28 May 2019 Words on a page are meant to evoke an emotion in the same way a scent wafting through the air can awaken the senses. — Janelle Okwodu, Vogue, "On World Book Day, Find the Fragrance That Matches Your Literary Taste," 23 Apr. 2019 Aguilar, 44, remembers walking to and from school, the smell of candy from nearby factories wafting through the air. — Nina Agrawal, latimes.com, "Brooklyn's Sunset Park, built and rebuilt by immigrants, sees change once again," 20 Apr. 2018 This involves architecture, the smells wafting from the sooq, the temperature, the people going about. — Dennis Tang, Teen Vogue, "How Hafsah Faizal Created a Fantastical World Rooted in Reality," 28 May 2019 Sauntering down the iconic walkway of the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, and pausing to greet runway pals Elsa Hosk, Cindy Bruna, and Adriana Lima, Harlow and her tulle train bounced in the breeze wafting off the nearby coast. — Zachary Weiss, Vogue, "It Was Super Yachts, Champagne, and Endless Tulle at the amfAR Cannes Gala," 24 May 2019

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Its once-squalid floors and tiled walls now gleam, and a perfume of disinfectant wafts through the corridors. — Rachel Swan, SFChronicle.com, "Needles on wane in BART trains and stations, another sign of fentanyl’s rise," 7 July 2019 The aroma of spicy shredded beef and pork wafts through the air. — Emma Schwartz, Bon Appétit, "How a Prison Cooking Show Connects Residents to Life Outside," 2 July 2019 To me, The Federal is the waft of truffles that billows from the front door and entices the arriving guest. — Rand Richards Cooper, courant.com, "The Federal, Agawam," 25 June 2019 But in Hungry, Gordinier invokes such playful and lush prose that the scents of mole, chiles and even lingonberry juice waft off the page. — Annabel Gutterman, Time, "Inside the Journey to Reinvent One of the World's Greatest Restaurants," 25 June 2019 The sooty air stings throats and wafts into the gleaming modern office buildings in the center of town and into the blocky, Soviet-style apartment towers that sprawl toward the mountains on the city’s edges. — Beth Gardiner, National Geographic, "Kids suffer most in one of Earth's most polluted cities," 26 Mar. 2019 As carbon dioxide gas wafts off the ice and seeps through the burrows, rats fall asleep, then never wake up. — Charlie Hamilton James, National Geographic, "How rats became an inescapable part of city living," 17 June 2019 Music wafts through the neighborhood from a DJ booth. — Sharon Coolidge, Cincinnati.com, "Orlando offers glimpse at FC Cincinnati soccer stadium future and the impact on a community," 31 May 2019 Air-purifying plants line the walls, and a custom essential oil blend of lemon, basil, and cedarwood wafts through every room. — Lauren Valenti, Vogue, "Inside the New York Wellness Space That Could Be the Future of Primary Care," 30 Jan. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'waft.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.