ˈɛlvɪʃ small and delicate she was an elfin creature — graceful and delicate obsessed by things elfin and small suggestive of an elf in strangeness and otherworldliness thunderbolts quivered with elfin flares of heat lightning the fey quality was there, the ability to see the moon at midday usually good-naturedly mischievous perpetrated a practical joke with elfin delight elvish tricks relating to or made or done by or as if by an elf elfin bells all the little creatures joined in the elfin dance