waspy

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wasp

(wŏsp, wôsp)

Any of numerous social or solitary hymenopterans of the suborder Apocrita, especially of the family Vespidae, that characteristically have a slender hairless body with a constricted abdomen, two pairs of membranous wings, a mouth adapted for biting or sucking, and in the females an ovipositor sometimes modified as a sting.

[Middle English waspe, from Old English wæps, wæsp.]

wasp′y adj.

WASP¹

or Wasp (wŏsp, wôsp)

A white person of Protestant English or other Northern European ancestry, especially one belonging to the American upper class.

[W(hite) A(nglo-)S(axon) P(rotestant).]

WASP′y adj.

WASP²

or Wasp (wäsp)

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

[From W(omen's) A(irforce) S(ervice) P(ilots).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

wasp•y

(ˈwɒs pi)

adj. wasp•i•er, wasp•i•est.

resembling a wasp; waspish.

[1650–60]

wasp′i•ly, adv.

wasp′i•ness, n.

Wasp•y

or WASP•y

(ˈwɒs pi)

adj. Wasp•i•er or WASP•i•er, Wasp•i•est or WASP•i•est.

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of WASPs: a Waspy country club.

Sometimes, Wasp′ish.

[1965–70]

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wasp

References in periodicals archive ?

It checks all boxes: more dressed-up than a T-shirt, more hip than a polo shirt, and more WASPy than a plaid shirt.

Style agenda: Shopping new basics feat. Tony Labrusca

In this WASPy setting, characters don't always display thoughtfulness.

The Time for Murder is Meow

Do you remember entering the competitions for jive, etc, and going to town to buy your "waspy belts", flared skirts, bop socks and shoes?

Libraries without books are not really libraries; Get in touch - tell us what you think Email: letters@liverpoolecho.co.uk Phone: 0151 227 2000 Twitter: @LIVECHONEWS Facebook: facebook.com/theliverpoolecho Post: Liverpool ECHO, PO Box 48, Old Hall Street, Liverpool L69 3EB

"The Wife" periodically whisks us back to the 1950s when waspy Joan (Annie Starke), a gifted literary student at Smith University, falls in love with her very married, Jewish creative writing professor Joe (Harry Lloyd), then the father of a little boy.

Nightlife film review Glenn Close gives Oscar-worthy performance in well-wrought 'The Wife'

Under Tweed, Canopy has taken strains with street names like Blue Cheese, Candyland, and Ken's Kush and tried to rebrand them with WASPy names like Blue Balmoral, Houndstooth, and Herringbone.

CANADIAN BAKIN': While the Trump administration reboots the war on pot, Canada is poised to corner the legal market

The seemingly WASPy mom and dad raised their teacups for a toast, grinned at their adorable children and, to my astonishment, bellowed, "Mazel tov!"

In Praise of Tribalism: Thoughts on two eight-year-old converts--and Michael Chabon

"We've all heard stories of American Jews anglicizing their names," writes the pseudonymous and shy "Jew with a Waspy Name." But "now that the U.S.

Ask Unorthodox: Should I Change My Name?

His topics included Hispanic crime (not higher than white rates at comparable age and income levels), the malleability of average IQ rates in different societies (greater than many hardcore IQ analysts generally believed), and the corruption of the American meritocracy (where he argued, among other points, that the disproportionate number of Jews attending Ivy League colleges was little more objectively justified by "merit" than was the preponderance of WASPy prep school students a hundred years ago).

We Came Out Fighting: Looking back on the turbulent times of TAC's fifteen years

While we are never fully allowed into George's conscience, Whittall delves into the waspy minds of Joan, Sadie and various locals and, through their inner turmoil, George's true character is revealed drip by drip.

REVIEWS

But first, end a waspy conversation with someone who may end up stinging you - no matter how well you think you're handling it.

STARS; SCOTLAND'S TOP ASTROLOGER DAVID WELLS ON THE WEEK AHEAD

Markoe, the behind-the-scenes Jewish woman to Letterman's clean-cut, Waspy leading man, is, Zinoman suggests, a central but often overlooked piece of the puzzle of Letterman's rise in sexist, racist Hollywood.