wafer Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a small adhesive disk of paste; used to seal letters
  2. noun a small thin crisp cake or cookie
  3. noun thin disk of unleavened bread used in a religious service (especially in the celebration of the Eucharist)

WordNet

Wa"fer noun
Etymology
OE. wafre, OF. waufre, qaufre, F. qaufre; of Teutonic origin; cf. LG. & D. wafel, G. waffel, Dan. vaffel, Sw. våffla; all akin to G. wabe a honeycomb, OHG. waba, being named from the resemblance to a honeycomb. G. wabe is probably akin to E. weave. See Weave, and cf. Waffle, Gauffer.
Definitions
  1. (Cookery) A thin cake made of flour and other ingredients.
    Wafers piping hot out of the gleed. Chaucer.
    The curious work in pastry, the fine cakes, wafers, and marchpanes. Holland.
    A woman's oaths are wafers -- break with making B. Jonson.
  2. (Eccl.) A thin cake or piece of bread (commonly unleavened, circular, and stamped with a crucifix or with the sacred monogram) used in the Eucharist, as in the Roman Catholic Church.
  3. An adhesive disk of dried paste, made of flour, gelatin, isinglass, or the like, and coloring matter, -- used in sealing letters and other documents. 4. Any thin but rigid plate of solid material, esp. of discoidal shape; -- a term used commonly to refer to the thin slices of silicon used as starting material for the manufacture of integrated circuits.
Wa"fer transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Wafered ; present participle & verbal noun Wafering
Definitions
  1. To seal or close with a wafer.

Webster 1913