ELF • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Elf

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noun

Elf n. (pl. elves)

An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks. "Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier."

A very diminutive person; a dwarf.

Elf arrow, a flint arrowhead; so called by the English rural folk who often find these objects of prehistoric make in the fields and formerly attributed them to fairies; called also elf bolt, elf dart, and elf shot.

Elf child, a child supposed to be left by elves, in room of one they had stolen. See Changeling.

Elf fire, the ignis fatuus.

Elf owl (Zoöl.), a small owl (Micrathene Whitneyi) of Southern California and Arizona.

verb

Elf v. t. To entangle mischievously, as an elf might do. "Elf all my hair in knots."

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Etymology of 'Elf'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Elf" Quotes from Famous Books

... wanton fun! A glorious image that! it might be Blake's; As in my critical capacity I took occasion to remark elsewhere, When heaping praise On this exceptionally happy phrase, Although I made it up myself. But I and Blake, we really constitute a pair, Each being rather like an artless woodland elf. ...

— The Battle of the Bays • Owen Seaman

... face I'll grime with filth, Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots And with presented nakedness outface The winds and persecutions ...

— Poetry • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... by hollow ghost or beckoning elf Far from her homestead to the desert bourn, The vagrant soul returning to herself Wearily wise, must needs to ...

— The Poems of William Watson • William Watson

... sheepfold and the herd are gone. Through channels new the brooklet rushes, Its ancient course conceal'd by bushes. Where the hollow was, a mound Rises from the upheaved ground. Doubting, shouting with surprise, How the fool stares, and rubs his eyes! All's so changed, the simple elf Fancies he is changed himself! Ho! ho! 'tis a merry sight The hag shall have when dawns the light. But see! she halts and waves her hand. All is done ...

— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... truer than any Egyptian.) There was a chair by the table, on which was an empty bowl and some broken bread; but the wise woman sat in the chimney corner, bending over the hearth, though the fire had burnt out, and not an ember glowed. And a strange little elf she looked, being very wizen and small, with one shoulder higher than the other, and a face full ...

— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett

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