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waft
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
waft
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a smell wafts somewhere (=moves there through the air)
▪ The smells wafting up the stairs from the kitchen were making her feel hungry.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
over
▪ A breath of cold, fresh air wafted over his face, as the heavy wooden square eased up a few inches.
▪ The stink of hops hanging in the air, wafted over from Wandsworth breweries.
▪ A cloud of cigarette smoke hangs over the group, slowly wafting over the television set and out through the open window.
▪ As they were working, the smell of puris frying wafted over from the houses round the square.
▪ With lights and sounds, the aroma of malt, hops and barley is gently wafted over the audience.
up
▪ A smell of bacon and eggs wafted up from the kitchen.
▪ The smoke wafted up my nose like incense.
▪ Later in the evening the sound of loud laughter wafted up through the open window, and even snatches of a song.
▪ The scent of tobacco was wafted up the stairs.
▪ And all the while Shelly's smelly libido was wafting up my nose, calling me to her.
▪ When the wind was wrong, the putrid stench was wafted up across the fields.
▪ The faint smell of cannabis wafts up my nostrils, as the stale odour comes from Clary.
■ NOUN
smell
▪ The smell of stale fat wafted out from the cafés.
▪ The smell of money is wafting through the pines.
▪ An unpleasant smell seemed to waft from the airline bag Mary always carried to school.
▪ The smell of frankincense wafted over us as it had at the monasteries.
▪ Not only was it gaudy in appearance but the smell wafting from the kitchen was distinctly malodorous.
▪ Soon there are delicious smells wafting through the house.
▪ As they were working, the smell of puris frying wafted over from the houses round the square.
▪ The faint smell of cannabis wafts up my nostrils, as the stale odour comes from Clary.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A smell of bacon and eggs wafted up from the kitchen.
▪ An unpleasant smell seemed to waft from the airline bag Mary always carried to school.
▪ Around eight o'clock the sound of distant brass bands can again be heard wafting in through the bedroom windows.
▪ But still, always wafting on the air here, are the screams and laughter of happy customers.
▪ Downtown Atlanta is normally an unhurried place where the noontime odor of fried chicken wafts through the thick humidity.
▪ The chef also goes with scallops, and as we both eat contentedly, classical music wafts softly throughout the well-appointed room.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Waft

Waft \Waft\, v. i. To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float.

And now the shouts waft near the citadel.
--Dryden.

Waft

Waft \Waft\, n.

  1. A wave or current of wind. ``Everywaft of the air.''
    --Longfellow.

    In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing Sweeps up the burden of whole wintry plains In one wide waft.
    --Thomson.

  2. A signal made by waving something, as a flag, in the air.

  3. An unpleasant flavor. [Obs.]

  4. (Naut.) A knot, or stop, in the middle of a flag. [Written also wheft.]

    Note: A flag with a waft in it, when hoisted at the staff, or half way to the gaff, means, a man overboard; at the peak, a desire to communicate; at the masthead, ``Recall boats.''

Waft

Waft \Waft\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wafted; p. pr. & vb. n. Wafting.] [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]

  1. To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Obs.]

    But soft: who wafts us yonder?
    --Shak.

  2. To cause to move or go in a wavy manner, or by the impulse of waves, as of water or air; to bear along on a buoyant medium; as, a balloon was wafted over the channel.

    A gentle wafting to immortal life.
    --Milton.

    Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole.
    --Pope.

  3. To cause to float; to keep from sinking; to buoy. [Obs.]
    --Sir T. Browne.

    Note: This verb is regular; but waft was formerly som?times used, as by Shakespeare, instead of wafted.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
waft

c.1500, transitive, "to move gently" (through the air), probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, ultimately from wachten "to guard" (perhaps via notion of a ship that guards another as it sails), related to waken "rouse from sleep," from Proto-Germanic *waht- (see wake (n.1)). Possibly influenced by northern dialect waff "cause to move to and fro" (1510s), a variant of wave. Intransitive sense from 1560s. Related: Wafted; wafting.

Wiktionary
waft

n. 1 A light breeze. 2 Something (a scent or odor), such as a perfume, that is carried through the air. 3 (context nautical English) A flag (also called a waif or wheft) used to indicate wind direction or, with a knot tied in the center, as a signal. vb. 1 (context ergative English) To (cause to) float easily or gently through the air. 2 (context intransitive English) To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float. 3 To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon.

Related phrases:
WordNet
waft

n. a long flag; often tapering [syn: pennant, pennon, streamer]

waft

  1. v. be driven or carried along, as by the air; "Sounds wafted into the room"

  2. blow gently; "A breeze wafted through the door"

Wikipedia
WAFT

WAFT is a Christian radio station licensed to Valdosta, Georgia, broadcasting on 101.1 MHz FM. The station serves the areas of Valdosta, Georgia, Thomasville, Georgia, and Moultrie, Georgia, as well as Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton Counties in Florida. WAFT is owned by Christian Radio Fellowship, Inc.

WAFT airs a variety of Christian Talk and Teaching programs as well as Christian music. Programs heard on WAFT include; Grace to You with John MacArthur, Revive our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, Insight for Living with Chuck Swindoll, Love Worth Finding with Adrian Rogers, In Touch with Charles Stanley, Turning Point with David Jeremiah, Truth for Life with Alistair Begg, Focus on the Family, and Joni and Friends.

Usage examples of "waft".

Here is the Park, And O, the languid midsummer wafts adust, The tired midsummer blooms!

The soothing smells of Akasha wafted slowly into her psyche, like a balm to her soul.

Ulysses someone approached and he came alert, the sadness wafting away like alder down blown by the wind.

As the shadows receded amid a fragrant waft of incense smoke, the Master used a second key to unlock the second of the aumbries, from which he brought out a stoppered flask of alabaster and a miniature silver chalice.

Indirect lighting, music wafting up the stairs, and a visit to the aviary should round out our ghostly evening to perfection.

The succulent aroma of barbecuing pork wafted through the chill spring air, and fragrant clouds of hickory smoke rose from the fires near the smithy, where haunches of venison, sides of mutton, and broiled fowl in their dozens turned on spits.

At any moment Bora expected to see the snowcap melt and waft away into the night as green-hued steam.

But he had scarcely emitted three puffs before the piping voice of Arabella Cadge was again wafted to his ears.

In their place wafted cream-colored curtains of caffoy or lace, chairs and sofas done in satins and tapestry, and live plants in pots, along with freshly cut flowers in crystal vases.

Turkish coffee and smoking the chicha, then past the gargotes, where the aroma of kebabs and kefta wafted into the street.

A multitude of whelps came forth from the lair of this barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as they call them, that is, in there ships of war, with their sails wafted by the wind and with omens and prophecies favourable, for it was foretold by a certain soothsayer among them, that they should occupy the country to which they were sailing three hundred years, and half of that time, a hundred and fifty years, should plunder and despoil the same.

We had reached the shore, warm, welcoming lights glowed from the dahabeeyah and the aroma of roasting mutton wafted to our nostrils.

The smell of cooking grease, some foul egestion wafting aloft from the bilges, the fug of damp wool and unwashed bod- ies was fit to make him gag, but he forbore manfully.

But the smell which hung over the battery, which stood between barracks and gun positions, between the computer and the shrapnel trenches, and scarcely moved its supporting leg, the smell which, as Harry and everyone else knew, was projected neither by rats nor by crows, which arose from no drain and hence from no errancy, this smell was wafted, regardless of whether the wind was working from Putzig or Dirschau, from the harbor-mouth bar or from the open sea, by a whitish mound blocked off by barbed wire and situated to the south of the battery.

She floated, lightly tethered, in the gentle stream blowing out of the air chair, slim graceful body semi-foetal, arms waving, her long, end-tied chestnut hair blossoming above her like a cobra hood, wrapping over her head then wafting back again.