wisp

[wisp]

noun

1. a handful or small bundle of straw, hay, or the like.

2. any thin tuft, lock, mass, etc..

   wisps of hair.

3. a thin puff or streak, as of smoke; slender trace.

4. a person or thing that is small, delicate, or barely discernible.

   a mere wisp of a lad; a wisp of a frown.

5. a whisk broom.

6. Chiefly British Dialect.

   1. a pad or twist of straw, as used to rub down a horse.

   2. a twisted bit of straw used as a torch.

7. a will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus.

verb (used with object)

1. to twist into a wisp.

wisp

¹

/ wɪsp /

noun

1. a thin, light, delicate, or fibrous piece or strand, such as a streak of smoke or a lock of hair

2. a small bundle, as of hay or straw

3. anything slender and delicate

   a wisp of a girl

4. a mere suggestion or hint

5. a flock of birds, esp snipe

verb

1. to move or act like a wisp

2. dialect,  (tr) to twist into a wisp

3. (tr) to groom (a horse) with a wisp of straw, etc

WISP

²

/ wɪsp /

acronym

1. Wireless Information Service Provider: an internet service provider set up to deal with and deliver internet services to clients through wireless access points

Other Word Forms

• wisplike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of wisp¹

1300–50; Middle English wisp, wips; akin to wipe

Word History and Origins

Origin of wisp¹

C14: variant of wips, of obscure origin; compare _wipe

Example Sentences

Two pianists weave together brief musical statements—crawling, low-end figures; chiming high notes; staggered phrases; wisps of possible melodies.

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He zooms the camera in to wisps of white smoke rising from the dirt.

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The remark carries a delicate wisp of rueful irony.

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Above ground it is a low-slung angular wisp of an object, whose cladding in mirrored steel deprives it of any sense of form or substance.

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A wisp of a player at 5 feet 3, he wasn’t a particularly strong shooter and didn’t score much.

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Related Words

• tuft