English▸ verb pass or cause to pass easily or gently through or as if through the air:
[no object, with adverbial of direction] the smell of stale fat wafted out from the cafe
[with object] each breeze would waft pollen around the house.
▸ noun a gentle movement of air.
▪ a scent or odor carried on a movement of air.
– ORIGIN early 16th century (in the sense ‘escort a ship’): back-formation from obsolete wafter (used only by opponents of the practice) ‘armed convoy vessel’, from Low German, Dutch wachter, from wachten ‘to guard’. A sense ‘convey by water’ gave rise to the current use of the verb.