WISP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wisp mean? 

• WISP (noun)
  The noun WISP has 4 senses:

1. a small tuft or lock

2. a small person

3. a small bundle of straw or hay

4. a flock of snipe

  Familiarity information: WISP used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WISP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small tuft or lock

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

wisps of hair

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

tuft; tussock (a bunch of hair or feathers or growing grass)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A small person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

a mere wisp of a girl

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

small person (a person of below average size)

Derivation:

wispy (thin and weak)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A small bundle of straw or hay

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

bundle; package; packet; parcel (a collection of things wrapped or boxed together)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A flock of snipe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

flock (a group of birds)

Meronyms (members of "wisp"):

snipe (Old or New World straight-billed game bird of the sandpiper family; of marshy areas; similar to the woodcocks)

 Context examples 

To Martin this withered wisp of a creature was a symbol.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

What did I do, Jane? I transformed myself into a will-o'-the-wisp.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I may be on the trail in this matter, or I may be following a will-o’-the-wisp, but I shall soon know which it is.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The hair was peculiar, plastered down in front in a long, curving wisp over his massive forehead.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He afterwards showed me a wisp of hay, and a fetlock full of oats; but I shook my head, to signify that neither of these were food for me.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

His fierce hawk-like face was clean shaven like that of a priest, save for a long thin wisp of white moustache which drooped down half way to his shoulder.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then with the wisp he rubbed all over the jamb of the door, above, below, and at each side, and round the fireplace in the same way.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Just before him Tom lay motionless upon the sward; but the murderer minded him not a whit, cleansing his blood-stained knife the while upon a wisp of grass.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Everything was wet except Maud, and she, in oilskins, rubber boots, and sou’wester, was dry, all but her face and hands and a stray wisp of hair.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black, with a white wisp of a neckcloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand, which particularly attracted my attention, as he stood at the pony's head, rubbing his chin with it, and looking up at us in the chaise.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)