0 a child or animal without a home or enough food and care, usually thin and dirty in appearance --
1 a child or animal without a home or enough care: --
a poor little waif
The negative depiction of the street waif was important in supporting a strong middle class agenda that aimed to maintain their class identity and convictions.
The waif shows the vulnerability of the entire nation by taking the weight of judgment on his own ragged person.
The careful construction of the street waif image therefore worked in the interest of the middle class industrialists' and factory owners.
She later proves to be not at all the waif that she was thought to be andbut the story is one to be seen on the screen.
A grant of waif and stray permitted the landowner to take ownership of such goods or animals if they remained unclaimed after a set period of time.
A "waif" was an item of ownerless and unclaimed property found on a landowner's territory, while a "stray" referred to a domestic animal that had wandered onto the same land.
They added that she is a strange mix of knowing farm waif and innocent child, partly muddled by old-fashioned religious morality.
During this time, the fashion industry was promoting models with waif bodies and androgynous women, which left a void.
