wisp

English

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wisp^¹

/wɪsp/

Rhymes with -ɪsp

Where it comes from

From Middle English wispe, wyspe, wips, wipse, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *wisp, *wips. Cognate with West Frisian wisp, Dutch wisp (“bundle of hay or straw”), Norwegian bokmål/Swedish/Bornholm Danish visp (“handful or bundle of grass, hay, etc.”). Akin also to Middle Dutch/Middle Low German wispel (“measure of grain”).

noun wisps

countable, uncountable A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; a twisted handful of something; any slender, flexible structure or group. A wisp of hair escaped her barrette and whipped wildly in the wind.
countable, uncountable A small, thin line of cloud, smoke, or steam. A wisp of smoke rose from the candle for a few moments after he blew it out.
countable, uncountable A whisk, or small broom.
countable, uncountable A will o' the wisp, or ignis fatuus. the wisp that flickers where no foot can tread
countable, uncountable An immeasurable, indefinable essence of life; soul. “She would get nothing from him, she saw, resentfully. Then some angel of grace lent her a few wisps, which she grasped.
archaic, collective, countable, uncountable A flock of snipe. They shift their quarters in the early part of the season very suddenly, and if a man hears of a wisp of snipe in any particular place, he must be off at once.
uncountable A disease affecting the feet of cattle.

verb wisps · wisping · wisped

transitive To brush or dress, as with a wisp. The very same head of hair, wisp'd, and matted together, would make the most disagreeable figure.
UK, dialectal, obsolete To rumple.
intransitive To produce a wisp, as of smoke. 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-u
transitive To emit in wisps. It looked warm and rosy-bright inside, with a little chimney wisping smoke, little windows glowing.

WISP^²

noun WISPs

abbreviation, acronym Acronym of wireless internet service provider

Translations

Every language

noun a small bundle, as of straw or other like substance

Español	brizna, mechón, voluta, jirón
中文	束, 绺 liǔ, 缕 lǚ
Português	tufo
Français	brin, fétu, touffe
Deutsch	Haarbüschel, Strohbündel, Wisch, Strähne, dünne Fahne
Italiano	ciocca, trefolo, legnolo, pagliuzza
Română	șuviță, șuvițe
Русский	пучо́к pučók
العربية	خُصْلَة ḵuṣla, حُزْمَة ḥuzma, خَيْط ḵayṭ

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MLA

"wisp." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/wisp. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

wisp. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/wisp

Chicago

"wisp." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/wisp.

BibTeX

@misc{wisp_2026,
  title = {wisp},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/wisp},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}