Other forms: wafting, wafted, wafts
To waft is to drift gently through the air. A smell wafted in, wafting on the breeze, waft across the room.
It is nearly always used of smells and of sounds rather than of objects, and the gentleness is essential — nothing wafts fast. The word once meant to convoy a ship, which is a long way from where it ended up. Note that its origin is uncertain.
1verbwaftTo drift gently through the air.
“The smell of fresh bread wafted up from the bakery below.”
waft is a gentle drifting.
Middle English waften is of uncertain origin, perhaps from a Dutch or Low German word. It once meant to escort a ship.
Middle Dutch
wachten — to guard, provide for
Old English
*wafettan
Middle English
waften
English, today
waft
From Middle English waften, of unknown origin. Possibly from unattested Old English wafettan, from wafian + -ettan, or perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch wachten (“to guard, provide for”). See also German wabern (“to waft”), Faroese veiftra (“to wave”) and Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire