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waif
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As a noun, waif means something found, especially if without an owner. As a verb, it means cast aside or reject, and thus make a waif.
Meanings of waif
8 meaningsnoun
figurativelySomething found, especially if without an owner; something which comes along, as it were, by chance.
figurativelyA person (especially a child) who is homeless and without means of support; also, a person excluded from society; an outcast.
figuratively(by extension) A very thin person.
figuratively(by extension, botany) A plant introduced in a place outside its native range but is not persistently naturalized.
Something (such as clouds or smoke) carried aloft by the wind.
Older and rare meanings (2)
UKlawarchaicOften in the form waif and stray, waifs and strays: an article of movable property found of which the owner is not known, such as goods washed up on a beach or thrown away by an absconding thief; such items belong to the Crown, which may grant the right of ownership to them to a lord of a manor.
nauticalchiefly whalinghistoricalA small flag used as a signal.
verb
To cast aside or reject, and thus make a waif.
Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).