WASP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does WASP mean? 

• WASP (noun)
  The noun WASP has 2 senses:

1. a white person of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who belongs to a Protestant denomination

2. social or solitary hymenopterans typically having a slender body with the abdomen attached by a narrow stalk and having a formidable sting

  Familiarity information: WASP used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WASP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A white person of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who belongs to a Protestant denomination

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

WASP; white Anglo-Saxon Protestant

Hypernyms ("WASP" is a kind of...):

Caucasian; White; White person (a Caucasian)

Protestant (an adherent of Protestantism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Social or solitary hymenopterans typically having a slender body with the abdomen attached by a narrow stalk and having a formidable sting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("wasp" is a kind of...):

hymenopter; hymenopteran; hymenopteron; hymenopterous insect (insects having two pairs of membranous wings and an ovipositor specialized for stinging or piercing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wasp"):

vespid; vespid wasp (mostly social nest-building wasps)

velvet ant (a solitary wasp of the family Mutillidae; the body has a coat of brightly colored velvety hair and the females are wingless)

sphecoid; sphecoid wasp (any of various solitary wasps)

cynipid gall wasp; cynipid wasp; gall wasp; gallfly (small solitary wasp that produces galls on oaks and other plants)

 Context examples 

However, when astronomers took a long look with Chandra at WASP-18 they didn’t detect any X-rays.

(NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Finds Planet That Makes Star Act Deceptively Old, NASA)

WASP-107b is one of the lowest density planets known: While the planet is about the same size as Jupiter, it has only 12% of Jupiter’s mass.

(Hubble detects helium in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time, ESA/Hubble)

While WASP is activated by interaction with Cdc42, Wave-1, is activated by interaction with Rac1 and Nck.

(Actin Branching Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

WASP-127b has a radius 1.4 times larger than Jupiter but has only 20% of its mass.

(Multiple metals – and possible signs of water – found in unique exoplanet, University of Cambridge)

This extremely high metallicity would indicate WASP-18b might have accumulated greater amounts of solid ices during its formation than Jupiter, suggesting it may not have formed the way other hot Jupiters did.

(WASP-18b Has Smothering Stratosphere Without Water, NASA)

The peptide that researchers focused on in this study was isolated from a wasp known as Polybia paulista.

(Venom of Wasp, Bee Repurposed as Antibiotic Drug, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It had a great mouth, with a row of sharp teeth a foot long; but its head was joined to the pudgy body by a neck as slender as a wasp's waist.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Bee, wasp, and hornet stings and fire ant bites usually hurt.

(Insect Bites and Stings, NIH)

A taxonomic class of arthropods that includes praying mantises, dragonflies, grasshoppers, true bugs, flies, bees, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and beetles.

(Insect, NCI Thesaurus)

Twice he stretched out his foot, and twice he failed to reach the point at which he aimed, but even as he swung himself for a third effort a stone from a sling buzzed like a wasp from amid the rocks and struck him full upon the side of his head.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)