How to Use elfin in a Sentence

elfin

adjective
  • They were delighted with the child's elfin charm.
  • This frog, with its long fingers and large red eyes, was found perched on tree branches in an elfin forest.
    — Real-Time News Team, Miami Herald, 31 Oct. 2025
  • That effort also brought back the rare frosted elfin butterfly for the first time in decades.
    — Diana Stralberg, The Conversation, 17 Dec. 2025
  • At 41, Heti herself — fair and faintly elfin, with overgrown bangs — could pass for a grad student.
    — Molly Fischer, The Cut, 1 May 2018
  • Olah is a boyish, elfin prodigy who, at nineteen, met Amodei on his first visit to the Bay Area.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
  • With his short, curly hair and elfin demeanor, Joshua Kiszka defies the stereotype of the ultra-macho hard-rock singer.
    — Randy Lewis, latimes.com, 6 Mar. 2018
  • The road winds up the mountain through the elfin forest of red shank ribbonwood that were carpeting the hills with a pale yellow-green hue from the tiny blossoms on the plant.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Sep. 2019
  • In a series of illustrated stories, Lung describes the Labubu as an elfin creature.
    — Merlisa Lawrence Corbett, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Belying the heavy set of his frame, TR’s bodily extremities were by contrast a shade off—evident in elfin ears and tiny feet.
    — Literary Hub, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Stories of the nisse, tomte and other elfin creatures became more popular, eventually finding their place in Christmas lore.
    — Regina Hansen, WSJ, 21 Dec. 2018
  • Rita Ora's not one to play it safe in the hair world, with her choices bouncing from a platinum blond pixie at the Met Gala to long, elfin princess hair in Cannes.
    — Rachel Nussbaum, Glamour, 1 June 2017
  • An elfin 21-year-old model with dreadlocks named Thomas Castro was buying a ring, encrusted with diamonds and in the shape of two panthers, for his mother.
    — Greg Howard, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2017
  • Among its regulars was one Jane Auer Bowles, an extravagant woman of elfin physique who, by the end of her days, had taken to wearing a conspicuous wig.
    — Negar Azimi, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2017
  • Alicia Vikander embraced the elfin vibe of Ghesquière’s giant pointy hats, which echoed some traditional Scandi headwear.
    — Rhonda Richford, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Cunningham was easily both, and Bozek’s film—narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker—captures both his artistry and his fizzy, elfin charm.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 14 Feb. 2020
  • There is a Green Giant Instagram account, which purports to chronicle a cross-country road trip taken by the giant and his elfin buddy, Sprout.
    — Martha C. White, New York Times, 4 Dec. 2016
  • The new story follows three elfin Gelflings who discover the horrifying secret behind the malevolent Skeksis’ power.
    — Mark Dawidziak, cleveland.com, 24 Aug. 2019
  • Perel is small and blond, with an elfin face, intense, peppy charisma, and a Francophone accent that serves to bolster her psychoanalytic and erotic authority.
    — Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 31 May 2017
  • But what if someone, or a group of someones—say, traders in Mexico—had a simple solution to the problem that wouldn’t involve prying @realDonaldTrump from the soon-to-be president’s elfin hands?
    — Bess Levin, The Hive, 12 Jan. 2017
  • Deletion of those genes in people causes Williams syndrome, which is characterized by elfin facial features, cognitive difficulties, and a tendency to love everyone.
    — Carrie Arnold, National Geographic, 19 July 2017
  • This year, for the first time in more than 40 years, the elfin man didn’t deliver gifts to the needy children along the hollows and pig paths in Harlan County, a place that would have been bereft of hope around Christmas for years if not for him.
    — Joseph Gerth, The Courier-Journal, 21 Dec. 2017
  • Numerous species are commercially available, from the culinary classic common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) to colorful flowering groundcovers such as elfin thyme (Thymus serpyllum) and creeping thyme (Thymus praecox).
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 25 Aug. 2025
  • Meanwhile, as Hjalmar’s 14-year-old daughter, Hedvig, the elfin Maaike Laanstra-Corn is delivering yet another wonderfully eccentric embodiment of a high-strung tween with a potentially perilous excess of imagination.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 14 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'elfin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: