awf

plural awfs

1. archaicobsoleteAn elf.

   […] the first fact that craves our attention is that the Alfar, (Elves, Awfs,) and Dvergar, (Dwarfs,) stand in contrast with each other

   1865, Monthly Packet, page 473

   2 more examples

   […] the 'awfs' or elves, whose flint arrow-heads (awf-shot), shot in malice at cattle or human beings, are found everywhere in the houes and on the moors; […]

   1875, James Anthony Froude, John Tulloch, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, page 489

   The thunder-bolts, and awf-shots, which we have already noticed among charms against human ills, were also used for the cure of disordered cattle. If an animal died of distemper, a portion of its flesh cut out and hung in the[…]

   1914, Elizabeth Mary Wright, Rustic Speech and Folk-lore, page 256

   Synonyms: ouphe

2. obsoleteA fool or simpleton; an oaf.

   What an awf wur I to pretend rime weh yo.

   1750, John Collier (Tim Bobbin?), Eawther an His Buk, quoted in 1875, John Howard Nodal, A Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect, volume 14, page 18

   1 more example

   Gin you, cankard awf (ill-natured lout), Silas mays a gawby (fool) o' Robin, he'll loase t' likeliest wench i' th' forest , an' […]

   1860, J. P. K. Shuttleworth, Scarsdale: Or, Life on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Border, page 163

1. not comparablepronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of off.

1. pronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of off.