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wisp

Pronunciation: /wɪsp/

The English word “wisp” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; a twisted handful of something; any slender, flexible structure or group.
  2. A small, thin line of cloud, smoke, or steam.
  3. A whisk, or small broom.
  4. A will o' the wisp, or ignis fatuus.
  5. An immeasurable, indefinable essence of life; soul.
  6. A flock of snipe.
  7. A disease affecting the feet of cattle.

verb

  1. To brush or dress, as with a wisp.
  2. To rumple.
  3. To produce a wisp, as of smoke.
  4. To emit in wisps.

Etymology

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”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.