ELF (elves)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: elves   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ELF mean? 

• ELF (noun)
  The noun ELF has 2 senses:

1. (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous

2. below 3 kilohertz

  Familiarity information: ELF used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ELF (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

brownie; elf; gremlin; hob; imp; pixie; pixy

Hypernyms ("elf" is a kind of...):

faerie; faery; fairy; fay; sprite (a small being, human in form, playful and having magical powers)

Domain category:

folklore (the unwritten lore (stories and proverbs and riddles and songs) of a culture)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "elf"):

leprechaun (a mischievous elf in Irish folklore)

sandman (an elf in fairy stories who sprinkles sand in children's eyes to make them sleepy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Below 3 kilohertz

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

ELF; extremely low frequency

Hypernyms ("ELF" is a kind of...):

radio frequency (an electromagnetic wave frequency between audio and infrared)

Holonyms ("ELF" is a part of...):

electromagnetic spectrum (the entire frequency range of electromagnetic waves)

 Context examples 

If you need to move to take the job, these planets are working like little elves to make that possible, too.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

If I dared, I'd touch you, to see if you are substance or shadow, you elf!—but I'd as soon offer to take hold of a blue ignis fatuus light in a marsh.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But in spite of the comical red imps, sparkling elves, and the gorgeous princes and princesses, Jo's pleasure had a drop of bitterness in it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

So he set out and followed the same road which his brother had done, and met with the same elf, who stopped him at the same spot in the mountains, saying, as before, Prince, prince, whither so fast?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Is this my pale, little elf?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The Unquenchables had done their best to be worthy of the name, for like elves they had worked by night and conjured up a comical surprise.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The thought pleased the good cobbler very much; and one evening, when all the things were ready, they laid them on the table, instead of the work that they used to cut out, and then went and hid themselves, to watch what the little elves would do.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

"In the name of all the elves in Christendom, is that Jane Eyre?" he demanded.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was well I had learnt that this elf must return to me—that it belonged to my house down below—or I could not have felt it pass away from under my hand, and seen it vanish behind the dim hedge, without singular regret.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Provided with a case of pencils, and some sheets of paper, I used to take a seat apart from them, near the window, and busy myself in sketching fancy vignettes, representing any scene that happened momentarily to shape itself in the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of imagination: a glimpse of sea between two rocks; the rising moon, and a ship crossing its disk; a group of reeds and water-flags, and a naiad's head, crowned with lotus- flowers, rising out of them; an elf sitting in a hedge-sparrow's nest, under a wreath of hawthorn-bloom.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)