waft

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   be driven or carried along, as by the air

   Sounds wafted into the room.

2. 2
   verb

   blow gently

   A breeze wafted through the door.

3. 3
   verb

   To (cause to) float easily or gently through the air.

   A breeze came in through the open window and wafted her sensuous perfume into my eager nostrils.

4. 4
   verb

   To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float.

   Unhappy Aureng-Zebe is in disgrace; / And your Morat, proclaimed the successor, / Is called, to awe the city with his power. / Those trumpets his triumphant entry tell, / And now the shouts waft near the citadel.

From Middle English waften, of uncertain origin. Possibly from unattested Old English *wafettan, from wafian (“to wave”) + -ettan, or perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch wachten (“to guard, provide for”). See also German wabern (“to waft”), Faroese veiftra (“to wave”) and Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”).

Topics