as in beggar
a young person who is thin and appears homeless or impoverished
the sad sight of waifs on the street
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Recent Examples of waif
The immortal embarrassment of Nosferatu The arduous, debilitating affair between melancholic 1830s waif Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and her vampire lover-enemy Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård, under tons of prosthetics) begins with deception.
—
Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 10 Jan. 2025
Working with Erivo in particular, Hannon, costume designer Paul Tazewell, and their teams found ways to show that Elphaba is no waif at the start of her journey.
—Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 23 Dec. 2024
This tiny, doe-eyed waif is the one making things deeply and unpleasantly weird in an interaction with her very powerful boss.
—Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2024
Who wouldn’t dream of being the waif led to heaven by a dangerous love?
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2024
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
Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 10 Jan. 2025
Working with Erivo in particular, Hannon, costume designer Paul Tazewell, and their teams found ways to show that Elphaba is no waif at the start of her journey.
—Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 23 Dec. 2024
This tiny, doe-eyed waif is the one making things deeply and unpleasantly weird in an interaction with her very powerful boss.
—Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2024
Who wouldn’t dream of being the waif led to heaven by a dangerous love?
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2024
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
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Cite this Entry
“Waif.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/waif. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
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