Eft

Pronunciation

• IPA: /É›ft/
• Rhymes: -É›ft

From Old English efeta, of unknown origin.

Full definition of eft

Noun

1. A newt, especially the European ().
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.10:Only these marishes and myrie bogs,
  In which the fearefull ewftes do build their bowres,
  Yeeld me an hostry mongst the croking frogs ….

Usage notes

The term is used for the land-dwelling juvenile stage of the ().

Derived terms

• red eft

From Old English eft, from Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Compare after, aft.

Adverb

1. (obsolete) again; afterwards
• 14thC, Geoffrey Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales,Were I unbounden, all so may I the,I woulde never eft come in the snare.
• 1384, John Wycliffe, , ii, 1,And eft he entride in to Cafarnaum, aftir eiyte daies.
• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XXI:And so effte he hyd the swerde, and returned agayne and tolde the Kynge that he had bene at the watir and done hys commaundement.
• 1557, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, ,And when they were all gone,
  And the dim moon doth eft withhold the light, ...

Derived terms

• eftsoons

Anagrams

• fet, FET