waft
verb /wɒft/
/wɑːft/, /wæft/
[intransitive, transitive]Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they waft | /wɒft/ /wɑːft/, /wæft/ |
| he / she / it wafts | /wɒfts/ /wɑːfts/, /wæfts/ |
| past simple wafted | /ˈwɒftɪd/ /ˈwɑːftɪd/, /ˈwæftɪd/ |
| past participle wafted | /ˈwɒftɪd/ /ˈwɑːftɪd/, /ˈwæftɪd/ |
| -ing form wafting | /ˈwɒftɪŋ/ /ˈwɑːftɪŋ/, /ˈwæftɪŋ/ |
- to move, or make something move, gently through the air synonym drift
- + adv./prep. The sound of their voices wafted across the lake.
- Delicious smells wafted up from the kitchen.
- waft something + adv./prep. The scent of the flowers was wafted along by the breeze.
Extra Examples- A scent of honey wafted up from the hives.
- Spicy smells wafted through the air.
- The night air wafted gently over them.
- The scent of the flowers was wafted through the window by the breeze.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- gently
- slowly
- around
- …
- across
- down
- from
- …
Word Originearly 16th cent. (in the sense ‘escort a ship’): back-formation from obsolete wafter (used only by opponents of the practice) ‘armed convoy vessel’, from Low German, Dutch wachter, from wachten ‘to guard’. A sense ‘convey by water’ gave rise to the current use of the verb.