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.
-
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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wimples,
present (3rd person singular)
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wimpled,
past participle, past
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wimpling
present participle
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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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wimples,
present (3rd person singular)
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wimpled,
past participle, past
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wimpling
present participle
-
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
-
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:
For a while, I tried reclining against a V-shaped pregnancy pillow, but I kept sinking backwards into it until I was wearing it like a wimple.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 20, 2021
“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
The tension Leo can generate simply by entering a room is extraordinary; the folds in her wimple look like extra neck tendons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2017
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
Her hair and the pillow were the same color, beneath the wimple of the medicated cloth she looked like an old nun praying.
From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
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
There were trains by the yard obstructing traffic, and a full complement of halos, wimples, tiaras and crowns.
From New York Times ● May 8, 2018
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
These wimples were sometimes very broad, and were almost like a mantle, so that they fell over the shoulders below the breast.
From English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
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
On Tuesday's Mother Angelica Live, scriptless and sometimes armed only with a theme--youthful piety, for example--she rambles for 30 minutes or so about whatever enters her wimpled head.
From Time Magazine Archive
All up and down Lost Valley the little winds wimpled the grass where the cattle grazed, and brought the scent of flowers.
From Tharon of Lost Valley by Frank Tenney Johnson
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
Where the stream goes wimpling and swirling round the boulders, underneath the rustic bridge.
From Kenneth McAlpine A Tale of Mountain, Moorland and Sea by Gordon Stables
"A flowery howm between twa verdant braes, Where lasses use to wash and spread their claes, A trotting burnie wimpling through the ground; Its channel pebbles shining smooth and round."
From The Genius of Scotland or Sketches of Scottish Scenery, Literature and Religion by Robert Turnbull
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