wimple

American  

[wim-puhl] / ˈwɪm pəl /

noun

1. a woman's headcloth drawn in folds about the chin, formerly worn out of doors, and still in use by some nuns.

2. Chiefly Scot.

   1. a fold or wrinkle, as in cloth.

   2. a curve, bend, or turn, as in a road or river.

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verb (used with object)

• wimples,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wimpled,
  past participle,  past
• wimpling
  present participle

1. to cover or muffle with or as if with a wimple.

2. to cause to ripple or undulate, as water.

3. Archaic. to veil or enwrap.

verb (used without object)

• wimples,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wimpled,
  past participle,  past
• wimpling
  present participle

1. to ripple, as water.

2. Archaic. to lie in folds, as a veil.

3. Chiefly Scot. to follow a curving course, as a road or river.

wimple British  

/ ˈwɪmpəl /

noun

1. 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

2. a curve or bend, as in a river

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verb

1. rare to ripple or cause to ripple or undulate

2. archaic (tr) to cover with or put a wimple on

3. archaic (esp of a veil) to lie or cause to lie in folds or pleats

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• wimpling
  present
• wimpled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• wimple
  simple
• wimples
  simple
• have wimpled
  perfect
• has wimpled
  perfect
• am wimpling
  progressive
• are wimpling
  progressive
• is wimpling
  progressive
• have been wimpling
  perfect progressive
• has been wimpling
  perfect progressive

Past

• wimpled
  simple
• had wimpled
  perfect
• was wimpling
  progressive
• were wimpling
  progressive
• had been wimpling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will wimple
  simple
• will have wimpled
  perfect
• will be wimpling
  progressive
• will have been wimpling
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wimple wimples wimpled wimpling

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

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

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

Beetle knew this was an important journey, for the midwife soaked herself in the millpond, dried her hair in the sun, and sharpened the pleats in her best wimple.

From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman

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

In the first and longer part, they wear pale gray balaclavas and gray leotards; the balaclavas give the suggestion of medieval wimples, but their legs and arms are bare.

From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2013

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

Down the burnie wirks its way Aneath the bending birken spray, An' wimples roun' the green moss-stane, An' mourns, I kenna why, wi' a ceaseless mane.

From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume V. The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century by Charles Rogers

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

These wimpled and scattered, and presently grew brighter.

From Red Axe by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

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

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

A 21-gun salute boomed from the British war boat Suffolk anchored off Nanking on the mighty wimpling Yantze.

From Time Magazine Archive

All the music of the heather hills and the wimpling burns 58 wooed me to join my kinsmen in the North.

From A Daughter of Raasay A Tale of the '45 by Stuart Travis

The muslin hides my harmless body Like wimpling waters of a lily-lake: Oh Mother mine, how creatures suffer pain!

From Vidy?pati: Bang?ya pad?bali; songs of the love of R?dh? and Krishna by Vidy?pati Th?kura