FromMiddle Englishwispe,wyspe,wips,wipse, perhaps from an unrecordedOld English*wisp,*wips. Cognate withWest Frisianwisp,Dutchwisp(“bundle of hay or straw”), Norwegian bokmål/Swedish/Bornholm Danishvisp(“handful or bundle of grass, hay, etc.”). Akin also toMiddle Dutch/Middle Low Germanwispel(“measure of grain”).
wisp (countable anduncountable,pluralwisps)
- A smallbundle, as ofstraw or other like substance; anyslender,flexiblestructure orgroup.
Awisp of smoke rose from the candle for a few moments after he blew it out.
Awisp of hair escaped her barrette and whipped wildly in the wind.
- Awhisk, or smallbroom.
- Awill o' the wisp, orignis fatuus.
- An immeasurable, indefinableessence of life;soul.
1982, Kamala Markandaya,Shalimar[1], Harper & Row,→ISBN, page154:“She would get nothing from him, she saw, resentfully. Then some angel of grace lent her a fewwisps, which she grasped.
1987, John E. Woods, Patrick Süskind,Perfume: The Story of a Murderer=Das Parfum[2], Pocket Books, page163:Apparently it had been too much; for his sleep, though deep as death itself, was not dreamless this time, but threaded with ghostlywisps of dreams.
2006, Paul Theroux,Blinding Light: A Novel[3], Mariner Book,→ISBN, page84:He was awisp of spirit — all his substance, the meat of his being, the coat of flesh that had always slowed him, had long since slipped away. He knew he was in two places.
2008, Cecilia Samartin,Tarnished Beauty: A Novel[4], Atria Books,→ISBN, page301:The morning we stood on Monte de Gozo,and saw the cathedral spires as though floating in the distance, the sun was already making its ascent into the pale sky. It was difficult for me to accept that our journey was nearly over. Santiago had grown into much more than a destiny in my mind; it was the culmination of all that it meant to be human, and I feared that my spirit, no more than awisp on this earth, would evaporate when the clouds decided to part.
2011, Ken Bruen,Headstone[5], Mysterious Press,→ISBN, page189:We entered the shed. The thick density of the smoke made it nigh impossible to distinguish anyone. It was like seeingwisps of spirits trailing IVs, shrouded bodies on the precipice of a low-key volcano.
2017, Cameron Dokey,Belle[6], Simon Pulse, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division,→ISBN, page134:A faint layer of dew lay on the freshly turned earth. It steamed slightly, where the sun touched it, wisps ofghosts rising up from the ground.
2017 September 10, Nigel Warburton, “What does a portrait of Erica the android tell us about being human?”, inThe Observer[7]:Another traditional answer to the question of what makes us so different, popular for millennia, has been that humans have a non-physical soul, one that inhabits the body but is distinct from it, an ethereal ghostlywisp that floats free at death to enjoy an after-life which may include reunion with other souls, or perhaps a new body to inhabit.
- (archaic) A flock ofsnipe.
1861, Horace William Wheelwright,Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist, page99:They shift their quarters in the early part of the season very suddenly, and if a man hears of awisp of snipe in any particular place, he must be off at once.
1988, Michael Cady, Rob Hume, editors,The Complete Book of British Birds, page158:A flock of snipe is given the collective name of a "wisp", perhaps due to its rapid twisting and turning before the birds drop down again.
- (uncountable) Adisease affecting thefeet ofcattle.
a small bundle, as of straw or other like substance
- Arabic:خُصْلَة f(ḵuṣla)(hair),حُزْمَة f(ḥuzma)(straw),خَيْط (ar) m(ḵayṭ)(smoke)
- Bulgarian:кичур (bg) m(kičur)
- Catalan:bri (ca) m,borrall (ca) m,borralló (ca) m
- Czech:pramínek m (vlasů,trávy),proužek m (dýmu),vích m
- Dutch:sliert (nl)
- Finnish:nippu (fi)
- French:brin (fr) m,fétu (fr) m,touffe (fr) f
- Georgian:კონა(ḳona)
- German:Haarbüschel (de) m,Strohbündel (de) m,Wisch (de) m,Strähne (de) f,dünneFahne f
- Irish:dlaoi f
- Italian:ciocca (it) f,trefolo m,legnolo m,pagliuzza (it) f
- Mandarin:束 (zh),绺 (zh)(liǔ),缕 (zh)(lǚ)
- Old Czech:viech m
- Old Slovak:viecha f
- Plautdietsch:Wesch n
- Polish: (wisp of hair)kosmykm; (wisp of smoke)wstęgaf,kłębypl
- Portuguese:tufo (pt) m
- Romanian:șuviță (ro) f,șuvițe f pl
- Russian:пучо́к (ru) m(pučók)
- Slovak:viecha f
- Spanish:brizna (es) f,mechón (es) m,voluta (es) f,jirón (es) m
- Turkish:tutam saç,tutam (tr)
- Ukrainian:віхоть m(vixotʹ)
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wisp (third-person singular simple presentwisps,present participlewisping,simple past and past participlewisped)
- (transitive) Tobrush ordress, as with a wisp.
1753,William Hogarth,The Analysis of Beauty:The very same head of hair,wisp'd, and matted together, would make the most disagreeable figure.
- (UK, dialect, obsolete) Torumple.
- (intransitive) To produce a wisp, as of smoke.
1931,William Faulkner,Sanctuary, Library of America, published1985, page70:To Temple, sitting in the cottonseed-hulls and the corn-cobs, the sound was no louder than the striking of a match: a short, minor sound shutting down the scene, the instant, with a profound finality, completely isolating it, and she sat there, her legs straight before her, her hands limp and palm-up on her lap, looking at Popeye's tight back and the ridges of his coat across his shoulders as he leaned out the door, the pistol behind him, against his flank,wisping thinly along his leg.
- (transitive) To emit in wisps.
2011, Iain Lawrence,The Winter Pony, page219:It looked warm and rosy-bright inside, with a little chimneywisping smoke, little windows glowing.
wisp
- Alternative form ofwyspe
