wafer

[wey-fer] /ˈweɪ fər/
noun
1.
a thin, crisp cake or biscuit, often sweetened and flavored.
2.
a thin disk of unleavened bread, used in the Eucharist, as in the Roman Catholic Church.
3.
a thin disk of dried paste, gelatin, adhesive paper, or the like, used for sealing letters, attaching papers, etc.
4.
Medicine/Medical. a thin sheet of dry paste or the like, used to enclose a powder to be swallowed.
5.
any small, thin disk, as a washer or piece of insulation.
6.
Electronics. a thin slice of semiconductor used as a base material on which single transistors or integrated-circuit components are formed.
verb (used with object)
7.
to seal, close, or attach by means of a wafer or wafers:
to wafer a letter.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English wafre < Middle Dutch wafer, variant of wafel waffle1
Related forms
waferlike, wafery, adjective
Examples from the web for wafer
  • Bourbon adds spark to these wafer-thin spice cookies.
  • The researchers layered two semiconducting materials, indium gallium arsenide and aluminum indium arsenide, into a single wafer.
  • The minority government's hold on power is wafer-thin, and some politicians have seen an opportunity for nationalist tub-thumping.
  • In many export industries, particularly steel, margins are already wafer-thin.
  • The image of a guy in a bunny-suit getting stabbed by a silicon wafer never entered my head.
  • But your argument is wafer thin to the point that a light drizzle of reality makes it dissolve.
  • Scan-head miniaturization has shrunk the guts wafer-thin, so only the polycarbonate body is visible.
  • And then my one new letter flashed onto the gray wafer of screen.
  • The team then selectively etched parts of the wafer so the metal blade could rotate freely.
  • Making integrated circuits involves depositing layers of materials such as semiconductors and metals on a silicon wafer.
British Dictionary definitions for wafer

wafer

/ˈweɪfə/
noun
1.
a thin crisp sweetened biscuit with different flavourings, served with ice cream, etc
2.
(Christianity) a thin disc of unleavened bread used in the Eucharist as celebrated by the Western Church
3.
(pharmacol) an envelope of rice paper enclosing a medicament
4.
(electronics) a large single crystal of semiconductor material, such as silicon, on which numerous integrated circuits are manufactured and then separated
5.
a small thin disc of adhesive material used to seal letters, documents, etc
verb
6.
(transitive) to seal, fasten, or attach with a wafer
Derived Forms
wafer-like, wafery, adjective
Word Origin
C14: from Old Northern French waufre, from Middle Low German wāfel; related to waffle1
Word Origin and History for wafer
n.

late 14c., from Anglo-French wafre, Old North French waufre "honeycomb, wafer," perhaps from Frankish (cf. Flemish wafer, altered from Middle Dutch wafel "honeycomb;" see waffle (n.)). Also found in Old French as gaufre, gofre "wafer, waffle." Eucharistic bread first so called 1550s.