Obs. exc. dial. [var. of WHIFF sb.1 with excrescent -t.]
1. A whiff or slight blast of wind; a snatch (of song).
1614. Gorges, Lucan, V. 202. So hauing said, the surging whifts The ship ten times together lifts.
1855. Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi, 52. A sweep of lute-strings, laughs, and whifts of song.
2. A small signal flag. (Cf. WHIFF sb.1 7.)
1839. Beale, Nat. Hist. Sperm Whale, xii. 155. Two or three small flags, called ‘whifts,’ which are inserted in the dead whale, in case the boats should leave it in chase of others.
1846. Young, Naut. Dict., 359. Waft, Weft, or Whift, a signal (most frequently for a boat) made by hoisting a flag rolled up lengthways and bound together with a few stops.
