▪ I. † weffe1 Obs.
Forms: 3–4 wef, 4–5 weef(e, 4–6 weffe.
[Of obscure etymology; represented later by weft waft n.1 1.]
1. A (foul or unsavoury) scent or odour: = waft n.1 1 b. Cf. whiff n.1 3.
| a 1300 Body & Soul (Laud MS.) in Map's Poems (Camden) 335 And nouȝ so lodly thouȝ list grenne, fro the comeþ a wikke wef. 13.. Ibid. (Vernon MS.) 342 A wikked weef. 13.. Metr. Hom. (Vernon MS.) in Archiv Stud. neu. Sprach. LVII. 288 Wondur him þouȝt Þat of þat bodi [= corpse] wef hedde he nouȝt. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 520/1 (MS. K.) Weffe, vapor. |
2. Flavour, taste; ill-savour: = waft n.1 1 a. Cf. whiff n.1 3 b.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 520/1 Weef [Winch. MS. Weefe], or summe what semynge to badnesse, inclinacio ad malum. 1530 Palsgr. 287/2 Weffe tast, goust. Ibid. 475/1, I can nat awaye with this ale, it hath a weffe:..elle est de mauluays goust. |
▪ II. † weffe2 Obs.—1
[? f. weve v.]
A blow or cut. (Cf. waff n. 3.)
| 13.. Coer de L. 5291 He took to hys mace off bras,..And gaff hym a sory weffe, That hys helme al to-cleff. |
▪ III. † weffe3
earlier form of weft waft n.1 6 (a small flag waved as a signal).
| 1562 W. Bullein Bulwarke, Dial. Health & Sicknes 76 b, Then Ariadne rente from her, her womanly apparell, making a weffe thereof upon the ende of a pole. |