Elf n.; pl. Elves
1. An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks.
Every elf, and fairy sprite,
Hop as light as bird from brier. --Shak.
2. A very diminutive person; a dwarf.
Elf arrow, a flint arrowhead; -- so called by the English rural folk who often find these objects of prehistoric make in the fields and formerly attributed them to fairies; -- called also elf bolt, elf dart, and elf shot.
Elf child, a child supposed to be left by elves, in room of one they had stolen. See Changeling.
Elf fire, the ignis fatuus. --Brewer.
Elf owl Zoöl., a small owl (Micrathene Whitneyi) of Southern California and Arizona.
elves
n : an acronym for emissions of light and very low frequency
perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources;
extremely bright extremely short (less than a msec)
electrical flashes forming a huge ring (up to 400 km
diameter) in the ionosphere
elf
n 1: (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous [syn: hob,
gremlin, pixie, pixy, brownie, imp]
2: below 3 kilohertz [syn: extremely low frequency]
[also: elves (pl)]