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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Elfish

Elfish \Elf"ish\, a. Of or relating to the elves; elflike; implike; weird; scarcely human; mischievous, as though caused by elves. ``Elfish light.''
--Coleridge.

The elfish intelligence that was so familiar an expression on her small physiognomy.
--Hawthorne.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
elfish

c.1200, alvisc; see elf + -ish. Compare elvish. Related: Elfishly; elfishness.

Wiktionary
elfish

a. 1 Characteristic of an elf 2 mischievous

WordNet
elfish

adj. usually good-naturedly mischievous; "perpetrated a practical joke with elfin delight"; "elvish tricks" [syn: elfin, elvish]

Usage examples of "elfish".

It was easy to imagine that this desolate region, not frequented by mankind, was the playground of unbenign spirits, and he fancied, as the Pacha had done, that elfish beings scoffed among the pines upon the plain.

Jock Binning, crutched and with an elfish face and figure and voice, had pulled down upon himself the office of revelator.

And he'd bring odd assorted boards and whatnot, and impossible bookshelves, all kinds of things, and years later I had further Three Stooges adventures with him going out to his house in Contra Costa (which he owned and rented) and spending impossible-to-believe afternoons when he paid me two dollars an hour for hauling out bucket after bucket of mudslime which he himself was doling out of a flooded cellar by hand, black and mud-covered as Tartarilouak the King of the Mudslimes of Paratioalaouakak Span, with a secret grin of elfish delight on his face.