Obs. Also 6 waift, wayft, 7–8 waft. Variant or perversion of WAIF sb.1
1579. Acts Privy Counc. (1895), XI. 196. Claiming the ship and goodes as a weft dewe to the lordes of the soile. Ibid., 247.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. x. 36. The gentle Lady … did … wander wide At wilde aduenture, like a forlorne weft. Ibid. (1596), IV. ii. 4. Ibid., IV. xii. 31. For that a waift [i.e., Florimell], the which by fortune came Vpon your seas, he claym’d as propertie.
1591. Art. conc. Admiralty, 21 July, § 46. Those, which vpon the high Seas, haue found any … Boates forsaken, or wayfts, driuing, or floating, without any creature in the same.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., I. ii. The Lord of the soile ha’s al wefts and straies here?
a. 1625. Fletcher, Elder Brother, IV. iv. You are Lord o’ the soile Sir, Lilly is a Weft, a Straie, shee’s yours, to use Sir.
1678. Dryden, Limberham, V. i. Do you know that I am Lady of the Mannour: and that all Wefts and Strays belong to me?
a. 1680. Butler, Characters (1908), 127. His Belly is provided for,… his Back … takes other Courses to maintain itself by weft and stray Silver Spoons, stragling Hoods and Scarfs, [etc.].
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), I. 532. It is as a waft or stray, that belongs only to the head landlord of the world, to whom therefore you must restore it.
1708. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. II. xii. 498. The Causes competent to the Admiralty Court of Scotland, are these among others…. Wafts, and Strays, and Deodands, and Wrecks.
1838. Southey, Lett. (1856), IV. 569. Farther corrections I shall make … for a posthumous edition, in which also I shall embody some wefts and strays.
