as in beggar
a young person who is thin and appears homeless or impoverished
the sad sight of waifs on the street
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Examples of waif in a Sentence
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Shelley Duvall, the saucer-eyed, rail-thin waif who starred in seven films directed by her mentor, Robert Altman, and avoided the ax wielded by an unhinged Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, died Thursday.
—
Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 July 2024
But that was before director Denis Villeneuve wowed audiences by cutting the first book in half and plopping Hollywood's hardest-working waif (Timothée Chalamet) into an unforgiving landscape riddled with monstrous, holy worms.
—EW.com, 13 Nov. 2023
Meanwhile, the emerging popularity of the waif threatened to undermine the supermodels’ status.
—Carrie Battan, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2023
As a model, Grace Coddington could morph from bohemian waif to Helmut Newton hottie in the bat of an eye.
—Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, 20 Apr. 2021
Phoenix Best has a pure and rich voice as the street waif Éponine.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Oct. 2023
The late-Nineties waif obsession led to a stretch when many runways featured girls who resented as bland, interchangeable adolescents.
—Bridget Foley, Town & Country, 26 Apr. 2023
Keane specialized in kitschy portraits of staring waifs.
—Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Mar. 2023
From a fallow-faced waif in the early episodes to restored and radiant by the series’ end, when Blixen has successfully reinvented herself as a writing genius.
—Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Apr. 2022
Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 July 2024
But that was before director Denis Villeneuve wowed audiences by cutting the first book in half and plopping Hollywood's hardest-working waif (Timothée Chalamet) into an unforgiving landscape riddled with monstrous, holy worms.
—EW.com, 13 Nov. 2023
Meanwhile, the emerging popularity of the waif threatened to undermine the supermodels’ status.
—Carrie Battan, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2023
As a model, Grace Coddington could morph from bohemian waif to Helmut Newton hottie in the bat of an eye.
—Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, 20 Apr. 2021
Phoenix Best has a pure and rich voice as the street waif Éponine.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Oct. 2023
The late-Nineties waif obsession led to a stretch when many runways featured girls who resented as bland, interchangeable adolescents.
—Bridget Foley, Town & Country, 26 Apr. 2023
Keane specialized in kitschy portraits of staring waifs.
—Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Mar. 2023
From a fallow-faced waif in the early episodes to restored and radiant by the series’ end, when Blixen has successfully reinvented herself as a writing genius.
—Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Apr. 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'waif.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Waif.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/waif. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.
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