Word.ws English Dictionary

elf-child

elf-child noun: a child of an elf; a young or infant elf, especially one that has been left as a changeling.

Noun

elf-child (plural elf-children)

  1. A child of an elf; a young or infant elf, especially one that has been left as a changeling.
    • “Good-wife,” said the miller, “as sure as mill stones run round, that's an elfwoman and that's an elfchild, — or they are the fair resemblances, made by the foul spirit of a mother and bairn, for deceiving thee and me, and bringing us to shame.”1823 September 1, The Atheneum, or, Spirit of the English Magazines, Boston, page 424, column 1
    • [A]nd there the baby was charmed away from her, and an elf-child left in her arms.1882, Jean Ingelow, Don Juan, volume I, Leipzig: Bernard Tauchnitz, page 25

Examples of elf-child in a sentence

  • As a result of this miserable union one elf was left alone, the Elf-child whose birth in the woods had first disclosed the fact[.]1890, M.A. Curtois, Elf-Knights, London: Remington and Co., page 2:
  • “No wonder, then, when I was an elf-child here, and saw the little fellow I used to sport and fight with, grow pale, and pine away, it was in great perplexity of mind I was.”1896, Maidie Dickson, The Saga of the Sea-swallow: With the Story of Greenfeather the Changeling, London: A.D. Innes and Co., page 94:

Forms of elf-child

pluralelf-children

Questions about elf-child

What does elf-child mean?
Elf-child means a child of an elf; a young or infant elf, especially one that has been left as a changeling.
How do you use elf-child in a sentence?
As a result of this miserable union one elf was left alone, the Elf-child whose birth in the woods had first disclosed the fact[.]
What part of speech is elf-child?
Elf-child is a noun.
What is the plural of elf-child?
The plural of elf-child is elf-children.

Words near elf-child in the dictionary

  1. elf queen
  2. elf queens
  3. elf-bolt
  4. elf-bolts
  5. elf-cap moss
  6. elf-child
  7. elf-children
  8. elf-craft
  9. elf-cup
  10. elf-cups
  11. elf-damsel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: elf-child (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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