wisp.
A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; a twisted handful of something; any slender, flexible structure or group.
Meaning & usage
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.
a wisp of a child
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.
A whisk, or small broom.
A will o' the wisp, or ignis fatuus.
An immeasurable, indefinable essence of life; soul.
A flock of snipe.
A disease affecting the feet of cattle.
Where this word 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”).
To brush or dress, as with a wisp.
To rumple.
To produce a wisp, as of smoke.
To emit in wisps.
Where this word 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”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.