Marilla had almost begun to despair of ever fashioning this waif of the world into her model little girl of demure manners and prim deportment.
Source: tatoeba (5833750)
Waif
//weɪf//
Synonyms for "waif" (105 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (21)
Strong matches (32)
Related words (52)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
13 entriesRelated terms
5 entriesderived
4 entrieshas context
2 entriesis a
2 entriesrelated to
9 entriesTranslations
40 translations across 17 languages.
Arabic
1 entries- سَائِبَة noun (article of movable property found of which the owner is not known)
Bulgarian
2 entries- бездомник noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- намерена вещ noun (article of movable property found of which the owner is not known)
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 流浪儿 noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Danish
2 entries- forældreløst barn noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- hittebarn noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Dutch
1 entries- zwerver noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Esperanto
1 entries- vaganto noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Finnish
4 entries- isännätön esine noun (article of movable property found of which the owner is not known)
- isännätön tavara noun (article of movable property found of which the owner is not known)
- katulapsi noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- löytö noun (something found, especially if without an owner)
French
1 entries- vagabond noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
German
4 entries- Fundsache noun (something found, especially if without an owner)
- Fundstück noun (something found, especially if without an owner)
- Heimatloser noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- heimatlose Person noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Italian
4 entries- naufrago noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- randagio noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- ritrovamento noun (article of movable property found of which the owner is not known)
- trovatello noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Māori
1 entries- hoetere noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Polish
1 entries- podrzutek noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Russian
4 entries- беспризо́рник noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- беспризо́рница noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- нахо́дка noun (something found, especially if without an owner)
- поте́рянная вещь noun (something found, especially if without an owner)
Serbo-Croatian
1 entries- nahod noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
Spanish
2 entries- bien mostrenco noun (something found, especially if without an owner)
- hallazgo noun (something found, especially if without an owner)
Swedish
2 entries- föräldralöst barn noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- herrelöst gods noun (article of movable property found of which the owner is not known)
Vietnamese
4 entries- trẻ bơ vơ noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- trẻ bị bỏ rơi noun (person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support)
- vật vô chủ noun (article of movable property found of which the owner is not known)
- vật vô chủ noun (something found, especially if without an owner)
Sample sentences
11 total sentences available.
waifs and strays
Source: wiktionary
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?
Source: wiktionary
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!
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 11 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.