Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Elfin

Elf′in

(-ĭn)
,
Adj.
Relating to elves.

Elf′in

,
Noun.
A little elf or urchin.
Shenstone.

Webster 1828 Edition


Elfin

ELF'IN

,
Adj.
Relating or pertaining to elves.

ELF'IN

,
Noun.
A little urchin.

Definition 2024


elfin

elfin

English

Noun

elfin (plural elfins)

  1. An elf; an inhabitant of fairy-land.
  2. A little urchin or child.

Etymology 2

Partly from attributive use of Etymology 1, but reanalysed by Spenser as if equivalent to elf + -en.

Adjective

elfin (comparative more elfin, superlative most elfin)

  1. Relating to or resembling an elf, especially in its tiny size or features.
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter I:
      Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with [] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.
    • 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club:
      He’s forced to travel back to 1969 to prevent an evil alien (a shockingly effective, nearly unrecognizable Jemaine Clement of Flight Of The Conchords, playing sort of a psychotic extraterrestrial-biker serial killer) from destroying the world by killing Brolin. Smith is aided in his quest by an elfin, time-jumping alien with psychic powers played by another Coen brothers veteran, A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg.
Synonyms