Sc. Also waf, wauf. [var. of WAIF a.]
1. Of an animal: Wandering, stray. Also of a person: ‘Solitary’; said ‘of one who is in a strange place where he has not a single acquaintance’ (Jam., 1808).
1720. Ramsay, Patie & Roger, 127. She … then bade me hound my Dog To weer up three waff Ews were on the Bog.
1776. Herd’s Coll. Sc. Songs, II. Gloss., Waff, wandering by itself.
2. Of a person, condition of life: Of no account, worthless.
1788. Picken, Poems Scot. Dial., 248. Gloss., Waff, little worth.
1808. Jamieson, Waff, Waif, Wayf, adj. … 3: Worthless. A waff fellow, one whose conduct is immoral; or whose character is so bad, that those, who regard their own, will not associate with him.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxix. Is not it an odd-like thing that ilka wauf carle in the country has a son and heir, and that the house of Ellangowan is without male succession?
1837. Lockhart, Scott, II. viii. 306, ‘I dinna think there’s a waufer (shabbier) thing in the world than to be a lassie, to sit boring at a clout.’
a. 1884. J. Russell, Remin. Yarrow, i. (1894), 7. A wauf hand [i.e., a bad preacher].
b. Comb.: waff-like a., shabby-looking; having a suspicious or disreputable appearance; feeble, of little account.
1808. Jamieson, Waff-like, one [sic] who has a very shabby or suspicious appearance.
1823. Galt, R. Gilhaize, lxxix. III. 180. Though the folk afore the house are but a wee waff-like.
1882. J. Walker, Jaunt to Auld Reekie, 46. A coat o’ rusty black The wauflike wretch has on his back.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xxiii. I came upon a lane of lighted houses, the doors and windows thronged with wauf-like painted women.
