relating to or suggestive of a wasp
easily annoyed or angered
First recorded in 1560–70; wasp + -ish 1
First recorded in 1965–70; WASP + -ish 1
If someone is acting irritable or crabby, you can describe them as waspish. Your sister's waspish complaints about dinner aren't likely to convince your dad to order pizza for her instead. This adjective comes from the word wasp and the notion that wasps are spiteful and ill-tempered, stinging petulantly when they feel cranky. If someone calls you waspish, that's what they mean — you're easily irritated. It's less common than it once was (waspish has been used since at least the mid-1500s), but it's still a great way to describe anyone who's quick to express their anger.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Waspish U. S. Army pursuit planes rose to greet it.
From Time Magazine Archive
He replaces the tall, Waspish dean of Ivy League college presidents, John Sloan Dickey, who is retiring after 25 years of transforming Dartmouth.
From Time Magazine Archive
Waspish Author Peyrefitte writes like a countryman of Rabelais and Voltaire, but in the U.S., where there is no comparable tradition of anticlerical literature, he is likely to shock more than to entertain.
From Time Magazine Archive
Waspish Sir Thomas and his orchestra-men race over the hurdles like steeplechasers.
From Time Magazine Archive
For, from this day forth, Ile vse you for my Mirth, yea for my Laughter When you are Waspish Cassi.
From Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
