waif

An article of movable property which has been found, and of which the owner is not known, such as goods washed up on a beach or thrown away by an absconding thief; such items belong to the Crown, which may grant the right of ownership to them to a lord of a manor.UKarchaic

• waifs and strays

Something found, especially if without an owner; something which comes along, as it were, by chance.figuratively

A person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support; also, a person excluded from society; an outcast.figuratively

• 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?
• Only an old woman, bloated, disheveled and bleared. / Far-wandered waif of other days, / Huddles for sleep in a doorway, / Homeless.

A very thin person, especially a young one.broadlyfiguratively

• When we had done all the things there were to do, he passed out and I clung to his reassuringly solid, soft stomach—paternal, so different to the indie waifs—and cried.

A plant introduced in a place outside its native range but not persistently naturalized.broadlyfiguratively

To cast aside or reject, and thus make a waif.transitive

• It is true that Guy, Count of Ponthieu, holds fief under me, but I have no control over the laws of his realm. And by those laws, he hath right of life and death over all stranded and waifed on his coast.

A small flag used as a signal.historical

• [page 440] The allusion to waifs and waif-poles in the last chapter but one, necessitates some account of the laws and regulations of the whale fishery, of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge. […] [page 441] [A] fish is

Something (such as clouds or smoke) carried by wind or water.

• Hot as the brackish waifs of yellow spume That shift and steam — loose clots of arid fume From the sea's panting mouth of dry desire; There stands he, like one labouring at a loom.