wimple
Americannoun
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a woman's headcloth drawn in folds about the chin, formerly worn out of doors, and still in use by some nuns.
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Chiefly Scot.
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a fold or wrinkle, as in cloth.
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a curve, bend, or turn, as in a road or river.
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verb (used with object)
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to cover or muffle with or as if with a wimple.
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to cause to ripple or undulate, as water.
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Archaic. to veil or enwrap.
verb (used without object)
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to ripple, as water.
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Archaic. to lie in folds, as a veil.
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Chiefly Scot. to follow a curving course, as a road or river.
noun
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a piece of cloth draped around the head to frame the face, worn by women in the Middle Ages and still a part of the habit of some nuns
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a curve or bend, as in a river
verb
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rare to ripple or cause to ripple or undulate
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archaic (tr) to cover with or put a wimple on
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archaic (esp of a veil) to lie or cause to lie in folds or pleats
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wimplesimple
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wimplessimple
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have wimpledperfect
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has wimpledperfect
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am wimplingprogressive
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are wimplingprogressive
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is wimplingprogressive
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have been wimplingperfect progressive
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has been wimplingperfect progressive
Past
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wimpledsimple
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had wimpledperfect
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was wimplingprogressive
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were wimplingprogressive
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had been wimplingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wimple
before 1100; (noun) Middle English wimple, wimpel, Old English wimpel; cognate with Dutch, Low German wimpel, Old Norse vimpill; (v.) Middle English: to wrap in a wimple, derivative of the noun
Explanation
A wimple is long piece of cloth that was worn around the head and around the neck, first by medieval women and later by nuns. Today it's more common to see a wimple in a costume shop. In "The Canterbury Tales," Chaucer describes both the Prioress and the Wife of Bath as both wearing wimples. It was considered proper during early medieval times for a married woman to cover her hair, and the use of wimples grew out of this custom. Married women no longer wore wimples after the fifteenth century, but they became an important part of a Catholic nun's traditional clothing.
Vocabulary lists containing wimple
Put a Lid On It: Hats, Hoods, and Other Headgear
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The Handmaid's Tale
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The Midwife's Apprentice
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The most deadpan cynic to ever don a wimple, most of her prayers come in the form of exhortations to “sweet suffering Jesus.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2022
“Mr. Bu-bu-bu-bu-Biden,” the nun taunted, until Biden’s mother went to the school and told the nun that if she ever spoke to Joey that way again she would rip her wimple right off her head.
From The New Yorker ● May 13, 2019
What’s most striking is the juxtaposition of the monochrome nun – she wore the traditional habit complete with wimple and veil – and the brilliant colours which burst from her work.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 22, 2018
Six hours later — clad in a purple velvet suit, a massive belt buckle and a shirt collar as big as a nurse’s wimple — he was ushered into the Oval Office.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2015
And underneath her wimple She has curlers in her hair There was a voice from outside the picture.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
Founded at the end of the ’70s, the Sisters, who wear white face paint, playfully garish outfits, and cartoonishly oversized wimples, are both theatrical and charity-oriented.
From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2023
They even have cute freckles beneath their wimples.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2022
The story is set in Seven Wells, an analog for medieval Europe — wimples, kinglets and all.
From New York Times ● Mar. 27, 2019
There is a glorious, back-to-the-70s daftness about Horrible Histories' parade of togas, wimples, ruffs and tights that makes it appealing – to a wide audience.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 17, 2011
The wimples were pieces of silk or white linen held to the hair in front by pins, and allowed to flow over the head at the back.
From English Costume by Calthrop, Dion Clayton
In and out of Westeros, we’ve aged, starting out as Aryas and ending up as wimpled Lady Olennas.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 12, 2019
He painted some with owls, and one day, on an impulse, he painted a rock with a wimpled nun.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2016
Between Nancy Reagan’s death and her funeral on Friday 11 March, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence reached out in their own wimpled way to share their pain, their anger and, occasionally, their sympathy.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 11, 2016
Thus they are greatly prized not only by historians but also by rubbing collectors who find a gentil parfit knight and his wimpled lady good company on their walls.
From Time Magazine Archive
The water ran doon frae the heich hope-heid, Wi' a Rin, burnie, rin; It wimpled, an' waggled, an' sang a screed O' nonsense, an' wadna blin Wi' its Rin, burnie, rin.
From The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2 by MacDonald, George
A 21-gun salute boomed from the British war boat Suffolk anchored off Nanking on the mighty wimpling Yantze.
From Time Magazine Archive
Of course, "somewhere" meant the Presidential Hunting Lodge, on secluded, wimpling Lake Werbellin, a scant 40 miles from Berlin, yet remote as a hut in the Black Forest.
From Time Magazine Archive
As they cast anchor off the Royal Yacht Club, in the wimpling Frognerkilen, they had Oslo on their starboard and suburban Bygdo, with its Castle Oskarshal, on their port.
From Time Magazine Archive
Our ramble along the wimpling Nith lies for the most part in a second Burnsland, so closely is it associated with his personality and poetry.
From A Literary Pilgrimage Among the Haunts of Famous British Authors by Wolfe, Theodore F. (Theodore Frelinghuysen)
Helen caught a glimpse of the stream where, when a child, she used to wade in the wimpling waters, and gather the diamond mica that sparkled on the sand.
From Helen and Arthur or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel by Hentz, Caroline Lee
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.
