wafery

noun

1. (historical, obsolete, uncountable)A kitchen or building in which wafers and other pastries are prepared; the department of the royal household responsible for the preparation of wafers.

   “Item the xi daye paied to Robert a lee yoman of the wafery for carying of the kinge nette for one hole yere ended xvi daye of Aprill laste […]”

   “1603, Richard Niccols, A Funeral Oration, upon the Death of the Late Deceased Princesse of Famous Memorye, Elizabeth, London: E. White, “Queen Elizabeths Funerall,” Then folowed Groomes, being: […] Kitchin. Lawndrie. Ewerie. Confectionary. Waferie. […]”

   “It was not till comparatively recent times that the wafery, a special department of the royal kitchen, where the confectionery and pastry were prepared, was discontinued.”

adj

1. Like a wafer (especially, thin, brittle, light).

   “It is, however, much more dangerous to descend than to ascend a rapid; for it is then almost impossible to stop a canoe, when under full headway, and if you happen to strike a rock, you will find your wafery canoe no better than a sieve.”

   “1900, Annie French Hector (as “Mrs. Alexander”), The Step-Mother, Philadelphia: Lippincott, Chapter 4, p. 65, […] enter Mrs. Raikes […] leading by the hand a little boy in a sailor suit, cap in hand, a thin, wafery-looking boy, tall for seven years old, but white and wan, with big, dark-grey eyes, restless and shifty, alarmed like a wild thing afraid of the hunters.”

   “Barbara had understood from her fifth year that it was not actually the same wafery substance, here on the table at Golders Green, that had been baked by the Israelites on the first Passover night, and yet, in a mysterious sense, it was […]”

   “I had one further mission, to investigate the famous Moroccan pastilla—a parcel of wafery pastry filled with an exotic concoction of meat (classically pigeon), almonds, spices, sugar and eggs.”

2. Sliced very thinly. (of bread)

   “1864, Louisa M. Alcott, Boston: Loring, Chapter 5, p. 94, This was none of your stand-up, wafery, bread and butter teas, but a thorough-going, sit-down supper […]”

   “I am greatly afraid they will not give you anything substantial here; nothing but a cup of tea and a biscuit or wafery slice of bread.”

   “One of the things she didn’t like about being fashionable was the miserable sort of tea people gave you in London—little wafery curls of bread and butter, and the sort of sandwich that wouldn’t keep a butterfly alive.”