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View synonyms for wisp

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 /

acronym for

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


wisp

2

/ 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. introften foll byaway 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

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Derived Forms

  • ˈwispˌlike, adjective

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Other Words From

  • wisplike adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of wisp1

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

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Word History and Origins

Origin of wisp1

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

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Example Sentences

Memories may seem like amorphous wisps inside a mind, but they have strong neurobiological underpinnings.

Wisps of fog were rising from the valley between rain showers.

Bumpy rides down La Ruta del Lechón, a stretch of highway known for its roast pork spits, wisps of smoke rising to the sky.

You could hear wisps of music and smell the earth, freshly turned over by spring worms, and there was a hint of something sugary in the air, something new.

From Time

You wouldn’t think sound could travel very well on Mars—what with the planet’s bare wisp of an atmosphere, which is just 1% the thickness of ours.

From Time

A thin man with a wisp of a goatee beard, he struggles with a stutter to explain what happened to him that day.

Sleek finds it far harder work than fortune-making; but he pursues his Will-o'-the-Wisp with untiring energy.

Rosemary flitted about like a will o' the wisp, and finally went to the window, where she stood looking wistfully out.

As she left the wood she saw a big hay-stack, as firm and shapely of outline as a house, not a loose wisp anywhere.

A wisp of wheat was knotted round her neck for a necklace, and a perfect sheaf of it in her hair.

I was told that subsequent to that matter my will-o'-the-wisp was coming on here positively.

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