wasp

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

wasp, n. [OE. waspe, AS. wæps, wæfs; akin to D. wesp, G. wespe, OHG. wafsa, wefsa, Lith. vapsa gadfly, Russ. osa wasp, L. vespa, and perhaps to E. weave.].

 Any one of numerous species of stinging hymenopterous insects, esp. any of the numerous species of the genus Vespa, which includes the true, or social, wasps, some of which are called yellow jackets.  [1913 Webster]
" The social wasps make a complex series of combs, of a substance like stiff paper, often of large size, and protect them by a paperlike covering. The larvæ are reared in the cells of the combs, and eat insects and insect larvæ brought to them by the adults, but the latter feed mainly on the honey and pollen of flowers, and on the sweet juices of fruit. See Illust. in Appendix."  [1913 Webster]

Digger wasp, any one of numerous species of solitary wasps that make their nests in burrows which they dig in the ground, as the sand wasps. See Sand wasp, under Sand. -- Mud wasp. See under Mud. -- Potter wasp. See under Potter. -- Wasp fly, a species of fly resembling a wasp, but without a sting.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

wasp, n. (also WASP) US usu. derog. a middle-class American White Protestant descended from early European settlers.

Derivative

Waspy adj. (also WASPy).

Etymology

White Anglo- Saxon Protestant

wasp, n.
1 a stinging often flesh-eating insect of the order Hymenoptera, esp. the common social wasp Vespa vulgaris, with black and yellow stripes and a very thin waist.
2 (in comb.) any of various insects resembling a wasp in some way (wasp-beetle).

Idiom

wasp-waist a very slender waist. wasp-waisted having a very slender waist.

Derivative

wasplike adj.

Etymology

OE w{aelig}fs, w{aelig}ps, w{aelig}sp, f. WG: perh. rel. to WEAVE(1) (from the weblike form of its nest)

THESAURUS

wasp

American Indian, Amerind, Australian aborigine, Bushman, Caucasian, Indian, Malayan, Mister Charley, Mongolian, Negrillo, Negrito, Negro, Oriental, Red Indian, black, black man, blackfellow, boy, brown man, burrhead, colored person, coon, darky, gook, honky, jigaboo, jungle bunny, nigger, niggra, ofay, paleface, pygmy, red man, redskin, slant-eye, spade, the Man, white, white man, whitey, yellow man

ROGET THESAURUS

wasp

Thinness

N narrowness, thinness, narrowness, closeness, exility, exiguity, line, hair's breadth, finger's breadth, strip, streak, vein, monolayer, epitaxial deposition, thinness, tenuity, emaciation, macilency, marcor, shaving, slip, thread paper, skeleton, shadow, anatomy, spindleshanks, lantern jaws, mere skin and bone, middle constriction, stricture, neck, waist, isthmus, wasp, hourglass, ridge, ghaut, ghat, pass, ravine, narrowing, coarctation, angustation, tapering, contraction, narrow, close, slender, thin, fine, thread-like, finespun, gossamer, paper-thin, taper, slim, slight-made, scant, scanty, spare, delicate, incapacious, contracted, unexpanded &c (expand), slender as a thread, emaciated, lean, meager, gaunt, macilent, lank, lanky, weedy, skinny, scrawny slinky, starved, starveling, herring gutted, worn to a shadow, lean as a rake, thin as a lath, thin as a whipping post, thin as a wafer, hatchet-faced, lantern-jawed, attenuated, shriveled, extenuated, tabid, marcid, barebone, rawboned, monomolecular.

Sibilation

N sibilance, sibilation, zip, hiss, sternutation, high note, goose, serpent, snake (animal sounds), insect, bug, bee, mosquito, wasp, fly, tea kettle, pressure cooker, air valve, pressure release valve, safety valve, tires, air escaping from tires, punctured tire, escaping steam, steam, steam radiator, steam release valve, sibilant, hissing, wheezy, sternutative.