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wasp

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The definition of a wasp is a winged insect with a slender body, a mouth that can bite and a stinger on females and workers, or is a slang, shortened form of the phrase white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

(noun)

An example of a wasp is a bug that may sting you when you are outside.
An example of a Wasp is a man of British and Protestant heritage.

See wasp in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

any of various families of winged hymenopteran insects, characterized by a slender body with the abdomen attached by a narrow stalk, biting mouthparts, and, in the females and workers, a vicious sting that can be used repeatedly: some wasps, as the hornet, are characterized by a colonial or social organization

Origin: ME waspe < OE wæsp, akin to Ger wespe < Gmc base *waps- < IE *wobhsā < base *webh-, to weave (in reference to the cocoonlike nest)

☆ or Wasp

noun

a person who belongs to or is thought of as being part of a white, upper middle-class, northern European, Protestant group that dominates economic, political, and cultural activity in the U.S.: a term often used with mild derision

Origin: W(hite) A(nglo-)S(axon) P(rotestant)

Related Forms:

WASPish adjective or Waspish
WASPy adjective or Waspy

See wasp in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

Any of numerous social or solitary insects, chiefly of the superfamilies Vespoidea and Sphecoidea, having a slender body with a constricted abdomen, two pairs of membranous wings, mouths adapted for biting or sucking, and in the females an ovipositor often modified as a sting.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English waspe

Origin: , from Old English wǽps, wǽsp

Related Forms:

waspˈy adjective

or Wasp

noun

A white Protestant of Anglo-Saxon ancestry.
A white, usually Protestant member of the American upper social class.

Origin:

Origin: W(hite) A(nglo-)S(axon) P(rotestant)

Related Forms:

WASPˈi·ness, WASPˈish·ness noun

WASPˈy, WASPˈish adjective

or Wasp

noun

A member of Women's Airforce Service Pilots, organized during World War II as part of the U.S. Army Air Forces to ferry aircraft and to test new aircraft. The organization was disbanded in 1944.

Origin:

Origin: From W(omen's) A(irforce) S(ervice) P(ilots)

abbreviation

Women's Airforce Service Pilots

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