elfin.

1. Small and delicate in appearance, often with a mischievous or magical charm.

2. Relating to the small, often mischievous supernatural beings of traditional folklore.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• an elfin face
• an elfin grin

On the page

An elfin grin softened the sharpness of her reply.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Appearance more elfin or most elfin where meaningful; folkloric relation normally non-gradable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description, character. Commonness: uncommon.