Word.ws English Dictionary

waifs and strays

waifs and strays noun: homeless people or animals.

Noun

waifs and strays pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) Homeless people or animals.
    • 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?[1624, John Donne, “13. Prayer”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 329
    • One thing I must not omit to mention—her passionate love of animals. In the old, good days in Dublin she used to pick up waifs and strays of forlorn doghood and take them to the Dogs' Home. The boys in the street used to shout derision at us: “Go on! wid yer grand hats and ye to be starvin' yer...1918, Dora Sigerson Shorter, The Sad Years

waifs and strays meaning in Kannada

waifs and strays in Kannada

ಅನಾಥರು, ಬೇವಾರ್ಸಿಗಳು, ಬೆವಾರ್ಸಿ ವಸ್ತುಗಳು

Examples of waifs and strays in a sentence

  • In the old, good days in Dublin she used to pick up waifs and strays of forlorn doghood and take them to the Dogs' Home.1918, Dora Sigerson Shorter, The Sad Years:
  • A down-to-earth Londoner […] Scodelario, 32, grew up in a council flat in Islington with her Brazilian mum, where a revolving cast of waifs and strays from the motherland were always welcome.2024 November 25, Hannah J. Davies, “Kaya Scodelario on Skins, scares and sex scenes: ‘I was called an English rose – it really pissed me...

Questions about waifs and strays

What does waifs and strays mean?
Waifs and strays means homeless people or animals.
What is waifs and strays in Kannada?
Waifs and strays in Kannada is ಅನಾಥರು, ಬೇವಾರ್ಸಿಗಳು, ಬೆವಾರ್ಸಿ ವಸ್ತುಗಳು. See Waifs and strays meaning in Kannada.
How do you use waifs and strays in a sentence?
In the old, good days in Dublin she used to pick up waifs and strays of forlorn doghood and take them to the Dogs' Home.
What part of speech is waifs and strays?
Waifs and strays is a noun.

Words near waifs and strays in the dictionary

  1. waifish
  2. waifishly
  3. waifishness
  4. waiflike
  5. waifs
  6. waifs and strays
  7. waift
  8. waifts
  9. waifu
  10. waifu pillow
  11. waifu pillows

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: waifs and strays (page history and authors); waifs and strays (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “waifs and strays.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/waifs_and_strays. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.