wafer meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

wafer

noun

UK /ˈweɪ̯fəː/ · US /ˈweɪ̯fɚ/

Etymology From Middle English wafre, from Anglo-Norman wafre, waufre (Old French gaufre), from a Germanic source. Compare Middle Low German wāfel, Middle Dutch wafel (“honeycomb”), West Flemish wafer. See also waffle.

A light, thin, flat biscuit/cookie.

I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe. The Propoſition and Demonſtration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with Ink compoſed of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to ſwallow upon a faſting Stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but Bread and Water. As the Wafer digeſted, the Tincture mounted to his Brain, bearing the Propoſition along with it.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 78:

Christianity A thin disk of consecrated unleavened bread used in communion.

A soft disk originally made of flour, and later of gelatin or a similar substance, used to seal letters, attach papers etc.

The house supplied him with a wafer for his present purpose, with which, having sealed his letter, he returned hastily towards the brook side, in order to search for the things which he had there lost.1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973 edition, page 202:

Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics A thin disk of silicon or other semiconductor on which an electronic circuit is produced.

Derived terms: Anzac wafer, communion wafer, Neapolitan wafer, silicon wafer, thin as a wafer, vanilla wafer, wafer ash, waferboard, wafer bread, wafer iron, waferish, waferless, waferlike, wafer prober, waferscale, wafer-scale integration, wafer-thin, wafer trapdoor spider, wafery

wafer

verb

To seal or fasten with a wafer.

[M]y Father, who knew he was well, wafered the paragraph upon a sheet of paper, and sent to his Lodgings.1775, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, 4 March
[T]he beginning of de Barral's end became manifest to the public in the shape of a half-sheet of note-paper wafered by the four corners on the closed door […].1913, Joseph Conrad, Chance, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, page 81: