Waff sb.

Sc. and north. Also 7 vaiffe, waffe, 9 wauf(f. [f. WAFF v.¹ Cf. WAFT sb., WEFF, WAIF sb.², WAVE sb.²]

  1.  A waving movement; esp. waving of the hand or something held in the hand: cf. WAFT sb. 5, 6.

1678.  Rec. Justiciary Edin., 13 Sept., in H. Arnot, Hist. Edin. (1779), 194, note. The devil … baptised you upon the face, with an waff of his hand like a dewing.

1712.  W. Rogers, Voy. (1718), 296. With orders, if they saw 3 sail in the offing, to make 3 waffs with their colours.

1831.  J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1856, III. 177. Beggars … that wadna understand the repulse … o’ a waff o’ the haun to be awa wi’ theirsels.

1847.  Halliwell, Waff, the movement of a large flame from side to side.

1876.  Whitby Gloss., Waff, a wave of the hand. The kind of flag or signal used at sea for assistance to the ship from the shore.

1886.  ‘H. Haliburton,’ Horace in Homespun, 72.

1887.  P. M’Neill, Blawearie, 89. These … youths … first extinguishing his light. This one of them did by a smart ‘waff’ of his bonnet.

  b.  To put out or set forth a waff: to wave something as a signal. Cf. WAFT sb.¹, 6 b, WAIF sb.² 2.

1600.  in Earl Cromarty, Acc. Conspir. Earls Gowry & R. Logan (1713), 105. And when you are about Half a Mile from Shoar, as it were passing by the House, to gar set forth a Waff.

1685.  J. B[arclay], trans. A. Skene’s Surv. Aberd., 215. And as soon as ye come to the Road, ye can allwayes have a Boat for putting out a Vaiffe at all occasions, for Piloting you into the Harbour.

  2.  A puff, passing gust, sudden blast (of wind or air). lit. and fig.

1686.  R. Fleming, Fulfilling Script., II. ii. (1726), 268. A waffe as it were of the glorious God doth go by to the discerning of others.

1727.  P. Walker, Life R. Cameron, Biogr. Presbyt. (1827), 294. [He] got a Waff of that murthering East-wind in the 1679.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxix. This increase of profit at Saint Leonard’s Crags may be a cauld waff of wind blawing from the frozen land of earthly self.

1822.  Galt, Sir A. Wylie, II. xvii. 162. We maun gie something to the young woman and the bairns, that we may get a waff o’ their good will likewise.

1836.  Scott. Mag., July, 208. It was not the Highland strength turn’d them that day, But the waff o’ the broad-swords that blew them away.

1897.  Northumbld. Gloss., s.v., ‘The waff o’ the train’—the rush of air caused by a passing train.

  b.  A whiff (of perfume), an odor. Cf. WEFF.

1819.  W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 29. A canny waff o’ sweet perfume Was blawn in breezes throu’ the room.

1887.  Service, Life Dr. Duguid, III. ii. 245. The waff of the wild roses … cam in stoons of sweetness alang the air.

  3.  A slight blow, esp. one given by something in passing.

a. 1754.  E. Erskine, Serm. Abraham rejoicing, Wks. 1791, II. 536. A very little waff of any thing will do it [sc. the eye] hurt.

1808.  Jamieson, Waff, 3. A slight stroke from any soft body, especially in passing.

  b.  A slight attack or ‘touch’ (of illness, esp. of cold).

1808.  Jamieson, Waff 4. A sudden affection, producing a bodily ailment. Thus … it is said that one has gotten a waff or waif of cauld.

1821.  Galt, Steam Boat, vii. I found myself in a very disjasked state … with a waff of cold that had come upon me.

  4.  A passing view, a glimpse.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., li. I sought every glen and cleuch … but teil a wauff of his coat-tail could I see.

1819.  Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 28. That the bauld-bosom’d clerk mith get A waff o’ his face ere aff he set.

1887.  Service, Life Dr. Duguid, III. i. 242. It is but seldom,—only at meal times, and aften no’ then,—that we get a waff of him ava.

  5.  An apparition, wraith. = WAFT sb.¹ 7.

1777.  Brand, Pop. Antiq., 99. There is a similar Superstition among the Vulgar in Northumberland: They call it seeing the Waff of the Person whose Death it foretells.

1815.  Dangerous Secr., II. 163. Your honour forgets I fand my dear maister mysel, an’ saw him laid in the cauld grave. It’s been his waff.

1884.  Besant, Dorothy Forster, xiii. There is the wauf, or figure of the person about to die seen by another person.