Usage examples for waif:

• The silky shock of yellow curls was lifted, the wide eyes stared wonderingly first at Beryl's face bending near, then at the cat; and by degrees, the lovely waif suffered an arm to draw her farther and farther, while her rose- red mouth parted in a smile, that showed six little teeth, and with one hand fastened in the cat's fur, she was finally lifted and borne away; Beryl's soft cheek nestled against hers, the bronzed head bent down to the yellow ringlets; one arm holding the baby and the cat, while the other white hand closed warmly over the child's bare, cold, dimpled feet. "At the Mercy of Tiberius" – August Evans Wilson

• So the poor, little, motherless waif lived among the old monks at the White Cross on the hill, thriving and growing apace until he had reached eleven or twelve years of age; a slender, fair- haired little fellow, with a strange, quiet serious manner. "Otto of the Silver Hand" – Howard Pyle

• Society to her was divided into quality white folks like the Earles, black folks like herself, and poor white trash like this waif and between the first class and the third was there a great gulf fixed. "Frank of Freedom Hill" – Samuel A. Derieux

• The little waif could not tell, but looked as if she wanted to. "Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad" – Various