Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Elf

Elf (ĕlf), n.; pl. Elves (ĕlvz). [AS. ælf, ylf; akin to MHG. alp, G. alp nightmare, incubus, Icel. ālfr elf, Sw. alf, elfva; cf. Skr. ṛbhu skillful, artful, rabh to grasp. Cf. Auf, Oaf.] 1. An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks.

Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier. Shak.

2. A very diminutive person; a dwarf.

Elf arrow, a flint arrowhead; — so called by the English rural folk who often find these objects of prehistoric make in the fields and formerly attributed them to fairies; — called also elf bolt, elf dart, and elf shot. — Elf child, a child supposed to be left by elves, in room of one they had stolen. See Changeling. — Elf fire, the ignis fatuus. Brewer. — Elf owl (Zoöl.), a small owl (Micrathene Whitneyi) of Southern California and Arizona.

Elf, v. t. To entangle mischievously, as an elf might do.

Elf all my hair in knots. Shak.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.