Tina Brown

With so many part-time people on - and not on - the job, corporate America has started to feel like it's on a permanent maternity leave. Colleagues are an amorphous, free-floating army of rotating waifs whose voicemails are clogged with plaintive requests from their own offices for missing information.

American Editor

Chrissy Teigen

I feel badly for those girls who have to be so waif thin, doing those catwalks all the time because, luckily, we're going into a different time - that's what they're saying, at least - in we're appreciating a curvier figure. But to be honest, I couldn't be like an hourglass if I tried.

American Model

Rita Tushingham

People always say, 'Oh, you've played a lot of waifs... ' but they were just girls. It's just that a lot of those everyday characters had never been on the screen before. I do hope I didn't get typed. I feel myself that I tried to do different things with those women.

English Actress

Paul Marciano

When the waif look first came into fashion, Anna Nicole Smith was in the Guess campaigns looking like a real woman. A girl who looks too thin and unhealthy does not look sexy to me, and she does not look right for Guess.

American Designer

Sophie Dahl

I still don't know what the 'ideal' woman is. Waifs will always be in demand because it's a lot easier to design for straight up and down rather than round curves. This is the reality, unfortunately.

English Model

John Harvey Kellogg

The Lord did not bless us with any children of our own, so we gathered up little waifs whom we thought would be neglected and would not be cared for unless we brought them into our family.

American Businessman

Tommy Hilfiger

My mother was kind and forgiving and would take in all the waifs and strays in our neighbourhood; we always compared her to Mother Teresa. She taught me a lot.

Jaimie Alexander

I will never be a waif. I want to market myself as a healthy-looking woman who is an action-star kind of girl.

American Actress

Steve Bruce

It's not always about money, we got Hull promoted with a collection of loans and waifs and strays.

English Manager

Joely Fisher

I've never been a waif; I have a womanly figure and always did.

Used to evoke a sense of pity or protective feelings towards someone vulnerable.

Empathy Context

Commonly encountered in Victorian novels to emphasize child poverty.

Victorian Literature

While evoking sympathy, 'waif' is a neutral term and not an insult.

Neutral Tone

Mostly used in a legal or maritime context; unfamiliar in everyday conversation.

Legal Jargon

Refers to items without clear ownership, often found or recovered.

Ownership Implications

Rarely used in general speech; mainly found in legal documents or historical texts.

Uncommon Usage

Describes someone who is noticeably thin or frail in appearance.

Physical Description

Beyond just being skinny, it implies an element of deprivation or vulnerability.

Not Just Weight

In fashion, it characterizes a look that is both delicate and chic.

Fashion Aesthetic

Used in fashion, it's a descriptive term, not negative.

Not a Critique

Signifies a style shift toward celebrating more unconventional beauty types.

Cultural Shift

 in fact the adults do have a strong instinct to protect chicks so much so that birds that have not managed to breed will try to take possession of a stray or abandoned chick but this fostering never succeeds because the adult has no partner to help in rearing the waif