waqf

• vacouf, vakouf (obsolete)
• wakf

From Arabic وَقْف (waqf).

• IPA^(key): /wɑkf/
• Rhymes: -ɑkf

waqf (plural awqaf or waqfs)

1. An endowment of land, in certain Islamic countries, given for religious or charitable purposes.
   • 1958–1994, Hamilton Gibb, CF Beckingham, editors, The Travels of Ibn Battutah, Folio Society, published 2012, page 25:

     The qadis in Egypt and Syria administer the waqfs and alms for the benefit of travellers.

   • 2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin, published 2013, page 368:

     A small house at the centre of the bazaar dispensed coffee free of charge to the poor at the expense of the waqf, an Ottoman charitable foundation.

   • 2023 October 10, Bruce Hoffman, “Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology”, in The Atlantic‎:

     Palestine is described as an “Islamic Waqf”—an endowment predicated on Muslim religious, education, or charitable principles and therefore inviolate to any other peoples or religions.

waqf (third-person singular simple present waqfs, present participle waqfing, simple past and past participle waqfed)

1. (transitive) To give as a waqf.